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Yukon election followed the rules, lawyer for chief electoral officer tells court

A voter and children arrive at a Whitehorse polling station during the Yukon election on Monday April 12, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Kelly) A voter and children arrive at a Whitehorse polling station during the Yukon election on Monday April 12, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Kelly)
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WHITEHORSE -

A lawyer for Yukon's top election official says the process to authorize a special ballot for a jailed voter in a riding where the incumbent lost her seat in a tie vote did not breach the territory's election rules.

Mark Wallace, the lawyer for chief electoral officer Maxwell Harvey, told the Supreme Court of Yukon that the Election Act allows for interpretation that safeguards elections and ensures people are not deprived of the right to vote.

Pauline Frost, the former health minister in the Liberal government, tied in the riding of Vuntut Gwitchin with New Democrat Annie Blake, who was declared the winner after the drawing of lots, spurring Frost's court challenge alleging two people were ineligible to vote there.

Wallace told the court on Thursday that adopting the petitioner's interpretation of the rules for identification and residency would disenfranchise homeless, incarcerated and transient voters, while eroding public confidence in the system.

He disputed the argument from Frost's lawyer, James Tucker, who told the court that the man imprisoned in Whitehorse was allowed to cast a special ballot in Vuntut Gwitchin without the required identification and residency verification.

Wallace said the man used approved identification to vote in April's election.

The result left Premier Sandy Silver's Liberals tied with the Yukon Party at eight seats each, before Silver struck an agreement to govern with support from the NDP's three members.

Luke Faught, another lawyer for Frost, argued Wednesday that the jailed voter had demonstrated a pattern of choosing to stay in Whitehorse when he's had several opportunities in recent years to return to his home riding in northwest Yukon.

Wallace disputed the claim that the man did not intend to return home, saying those opportunities amounted to a total of seven days during which he was free from prison and court-ordered conditions that prevented him from returning. The man has never established a residence outside his family home in Old Crow, Wallace said.

The man has spent most of the last 20 years incarcerated outside his home community of Old Crow and he has long stated, including in court, that he intends to return, Blake's lawyer, Shaunagh Stikeman, told the court on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2021.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

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