A legal challenge to the results of the mayoral election in Stoughton was dismissed by the Court of King’s Bench in Weyburn last week. In a written decision issued Thursday, Justice J. Morris dismissed the case due to not being filed by the deadline set out in the Local Government Elections Act. However, he did take the time to examine the merits of the case, and found the alleged irregularities in the case, even if proven, would have been within the scope of what are considered permissible errors by the Local Government Elections Act.
Tyson Slater was the runner-up in the election held on November 13th, and received 74 votes, compared to 174 received by the winner of the election, Stefan Clark. On December 30th, Slater filed an application asking the results of the election be set aside, with a new election to be held. Slater had initially requested the acclamation of the six town councillors also be set aside, but this was withdrawn during the hearing on March 11th.
The main issue Justice Morris found with the application was the date it was filed. It was submitted to the local registrar of the Court of King’s Bench in Weyburn after the offices had closed for the day on December 27th. The Local Government Elections Act outlined the deadline to file a contesting of an election within six weeks after the election. As the paperwork was faxed to the registrar after hours, and wasn’t officially filed until December 30th, it was ruled to be outside the window.
"Mr. Slater’s application is appropriately dismissed as being out of time, and I dismiss it on this basis,” Justice Morris wrote in his decision. “For completeness, however, I will address the merits of Mr. Slater’s application.”
The decision then asks if Slater made out a case for relief on the merits.
“The short answer is ‘no’”, the decision read.
Slater contended the election should be declared invalid based on several factors, including that the town’s chief administrative officer, and returning officer for the election, had advised two candidates who were ineligible to run for council based on not being residents of the town that they were not eligible to run.
Other concerns raised by Slater included proper ballot box handling procedures not being followed, only having 500 ballots for use in the election instead of a larger number, and the use of an outdated voter registration form at the advanced poll.
Justice Morris broke down each of the items that were raised and highlighted Slater did not satisfy the burden of proof in the case. The judge highlighted that if the two people who were ineligible to run for council did run for council, that would have put the election for council into question but had no impact on the mayoral race.
The justice also referenced the number of ballots that were available for the election, pointing out there were only 251 votes cast in the election, which was just barely half of the number of ballots that were printed for the vote.
After reviewing the evidence regarding the handling procedures of the ballot box, Morris wrote “There is no evidence that permits me to accede to Mr. Slater’s speculative theory that the ballot box may have been stuffed, or had ballots removed, between the advance poll and election day on November 13, 2024.”
Ultimately, Morris dismissed the application, with costs awarded to the respondent – the Town of Stoughton.