Double Blind

The following is my submission to the Local Government Elections Task Force.

To the Local Government Elections Task Force,

I was elected as a park commissioner in November 2008 pursuant to the Cultus Lake Park Act. The purpose of this letter is to express my opinions on the matters that your task force is considering.

Campaign finance – Contribution/Spending Limits

Our current system, mostly unlimited contributions and spending, is adequate. Enacting spending controls would require a whole new bureaucracy of ensuring compliance, which would be prohibitive for local candidates to enter elections.

I spent under $1,000 in the last election campaign, so I am not recommending ‘status quo’ with any self-interest. I strongly believe that spending and contribution limits are more “unfair” than unlimited spending, as spending limits promote incumbency protection.

I will recommend that Section 87 of the Local Government Act be amended such that only individuals (not corporations, unions, associations, etc.) be allowed to contribute to the candidate or elector organization as it is relatively easy to create a numbered corporation and funnel money into a campaign without the public having a proper way of knowing where the true source of funds for the campaign is. I also recommend that individual donators/contributors be restricted to being residents in British Columbia.

Note this recommendation means that corporations/unions cannot give “in-kind” or other non-monetary contributions.

Campaign finance – Contribution/Spending disclosure

Disclosure requirements are currently modest, but are generally adequate.

One significant change that I recommend is adding a requirement to disclose within 3 business days the cumulative receipt of a monetary or in-kind contribution greater than $1,000 from any one source. The reason for this is that if somebody is trying to “buy an election”, the information is not useful to an elector after the election is over. If this information is timely disclosed, it will counteract the “unfairness” arguments that spending limit proponents advocate.

While not currently required by legislation (Section 93 of the Act), documents pertaining to the receipt and expenditure of campaign funds should be available electronically for those that request it. The City of Vancouver currently does this on a voluntary basis, but typically for other municipalities you have to walk into City Hall and view the documents in person.

Campaign finance – public financing / tax credits

For compliance cost reasons, tax credits should not be issued to municipal donators. If the committee does recommend some form of tax credit system, I would mirror the provincial political donation tax credit system.

I do not support the concept of “public financing” based on a result of a previous election – this would be a measure of incumbency protection, something that all locally elected officials already have by virtue of their office.

All contributions/donations to a candidates’ campaign should be done through his/her own pocket, or through contributions/donations of other individuals and not be financed by the government.

Enforcement processes and outcomes

I do not believe there has been a single case of prosecution for improper disclosure of the receipt of contributions of the expenditure of funds for elections. The oversight for this function in local elections is lacking. Short of requiring external audits of campaign expenses and contributions, I believe the committee should steer its policy recommendations towards having less rules to comply with, to reduce the burden of monitoring candidates as I do not believe that verification of contributions and expenses will be more diligent in the future.

One easy method of verifying campaign contributions and expenses is to require campaign expenditure reports to attach their bank statements, as every candidate and elector organization is required to open up a bank account for the purpose of managing campaign expenses. This will clearly show cash inflows and outflows and can reconcile with the stated numbers on the donation and expense report.

Election Cycle / Term of Office / By-Elections

Three years is a reasonable term of office. It ensures accountability of elected officials, but not at the expense of long term planning.

The fixed election dates, currently held in November, should be held one month earlier in mid-October. The reason is that campaigning in November is restrictive due to the weather and short daylight hours, especially in jurisdictions in the BC interior.

As a cost-saving measure, I would consider modifying Section 37(3)(a) of the Act to enable an indefinite postponement of a by-election.

Role of the chief electoral officer (B.C.) in local government elections

The Chief Electoral Office should only be involved in instances involving the allegation of improper disclosure of contributions or expenditures, or other issues pertaining to dispute resolution. Municipalities have otherwise tended to do an excellent job of managing their own elections.

Corporate Vote

The present system is adequate – i.e. no voting for corporations. The reason why I would be opposed to this is from a compliance perspective, and potential for abuse. I also do not fundamentally see why my corporation and myself should be able to have double the representation in an election than just an individual. Having a corporate address in a municipality does not imply that my corporation pays any tax money to the municipality.

Other Issues – Methods of voting

I am against the concept of “internet voting”. I am also against the concept of mail-in ballots. These two methods of voting are susceptible to fraud and security concerns. I recommend hard-coding in legislation that voters must be physically present and show two pieces of identification before voting that establish their identity and residency. I do support and recommend the existing system of having advanced voting days.

The voter turnout of an election should not be used as a measuring tool to determine how “successful” an election was.

Other Issues – Non-residential property owners

The current system of allowing non-residential property owners to vote is adequate. This is as close to “taxation with representation” without allowing a corporate vote.

Other Issues – Voting system

The existing “at-large” method of electing local representatives is adequate, mainly because it is a system that is easy to understand and produces results that are a reasonable representation of voters’ intentions. I would recommend that whatever system of voting is used that it be applied provincially as if different municipalities had different voting methods, it would lead to widespread confusion.

I also do not support the concept of “wards” in local government elections.

Summary of Recommended Changes

1. Change the fixed election date from mid-November to mid-October.
2. Allow campaign contributions from individuals only.
3. Require disclosure within 3 business days of a contribution greater than $1,000.
4. Enable electronic viewing of campaign contribution/expenditure reports.
5. Require campaign contribution/expense reports to attach campaign bank statements.
6. Explicitly require voters to be present, and show two forms of ID establishing their identity and residency.

Sincerely,
Sacha Peter

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.