Honveer Singh Randhawa announced that he has withdrawn his Supreme Court of British Columbia Petition relating to the October 2024 Surrey-Guildford Election (43rd Provincial General Election), and is calling on Elections BC to complete its investigation and recommend reforms to better protect vulnerable voters in future elections.
Randhawa’s team says the Petition has already achieved a material outcome. Before the Petition, Elections BC took the position that no violations of the Election Act had occurred in Surrey-Guildford. However, after Mr. Randhawa’s team gathered and provided detailed evidence, Elections BC later admitted that violations did occur, including serious violations regarding mail-in ballots involving a care facility in Surrey-Guildford. Mr. Randhawa’s team says bringing those violations to light and having them acknowledged was the central purpose of the Petition.
The Chief Electoral Officer of Elections BC, in his Response to Petition, admitted that violations occurred. “Elections BC says its Vote by Mail Team noticed a pattern of multiple mail-in voting package requests from a single source at a care facility, but failed to follow its own safeguard procedure of confirming with the District Electoral Officer. Elections BC also confirmed in its Response to Petition that no individual was identified as assisting a voter on any of the 22 packages, and says it only identified this procedural failure after Mr. Randhawa filed the petition and it reviewed its records to respond.”
Randhawa said in a statement that he never sought any personal benefit and pursued the Petition to support election integrity and protect vulnerable voters. Randhawa’s team says it brought its concerns to Elections BC on January 3, 2025, and believes timely investigation and interviews while memories were fresher could have materially improved the ability to secure evidence.
Randhawa states that this Petition’s legal process has cost more than $200,000 to date, including funding for independent legal counsel for care-facility residents, chosen independently by the residents, so they could be advised and represented fairly.
Randhawa is calling on Elections BC to review and recommend changes to extend the 30-day deadline under section 150(3)(b), which was enacted decades ago, and to resume its investigation, and bring forward reforms to prevent similar issues in future elections.
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