No criminal charges laid in 2017 UCP leadership vote investigation
Alberta RCMP has concluded its five-year investigation into the 2017 United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership contest.
Mounties have determined that no charges will be laid in connection with the leadership race after two separate investigations were opened following a complaint in February 2019. The investigations related to the candidacy of Jeff Callaway, as well as allegations of voter fraud in the UCP contest.
In July 2017, the Wild Rose Party and Progressive Conservative Party merged to form the UCP. Following the union of the two parties, a leadership contest followed. This was an internal UCP process with no oversight from Elections Alberta, except as it related to the Alberta Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act (EFCDA).
On October 4, 2017, Callaway dropped out of the leadership race and publicly endorsed Jason Kenney. Kenney was elected UCP leader on October 28, 2017, with allegations of wrongdoing surfacing after the leadership contest. Kenney was elected premier in April 2019.
The Jeff Callaway candidacy
The first allegation was that Callaway entered the contest solely to attack the other candidate, intending to withdraw from the leadership race and endorse a different candidate. These allegations were investigated for fraud.
RCMP said investigators conducted more than 170 interviews with campaign staff and contributors and examined over 25,000 emails related to Callaway’s campaign.
“The investigation did not uncover evidence to establish that Callaway, or any other person, committed a criminal offence,” said RCMP.
Allegations of voter fraud
RCMP says that while there were suspected instances of potential identity fraud, there was “insufficient evidence to charge any suspect.”
In order to vote, a UCP member needed to register and receive a Personal Identification Number (PIN), either by phone, email, or text message. Once the PIN was received, the member could vote by phone or using a proprietary electronic voting platform on the Internet.
There were allegations that emails were created in order to receive PINs and vote on people’s behalf without their consent or knowledge.
Police obtained the voter database containing data for more than 60,000 voters and analyzed the data, identifying “suspicious votes” cast from the same phone number or originating from the same IP address. The data did not show which candidate was voted for, only that a vote had been cast.
RCMP generated a list of these votes and interviewed more than 1,200 people, examining their UCP membership and registration forms. Fewer than 200 votes were at issue, which would not have impacted the leadership contest.
A five-year investigation
Police said the investigation was “extremely complex” and time-consuming due to several factors, including the volume of data analyzed, some of which required juridical authorization to be obtained domestically and outside Canada.
Police said the complaint, having been received two years after the 2017 contest, impacted many witnesses’ recollection of the events. The leadership race took place simultaneously with other party votes, and some witnesses were unclear about which process the RCMP was investigating.
“Nothing in the investigation suggested that the UCP failed to take reasonable steps to manage their internal process. We hope that the information shared today will further reduce the risk of similar incidents occurring in the future for any political party,” said RCMP.
“The investigators received cooperation from the UCP and the leadership candidates, which assisted in moving the investigation forward.”
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