Fraudulent applications for mail-in ballots, along with suspicious messages on Chinese messaging apps were discovered by police.
There have been multiple occurrences of voter fraud in municipal, provincial, and federal elections in British Columbia over the years.
In 2018, RCMP in Surrey claimed they found 67 fraudulent applications to vote by mail, as was reported by the Canadian Press.
Suspicious messages were found circulating via WeChat, allegedly offering money in exchange for votes. WeChat is a Chinese messaging app headquartered in Shenzhen, China.
The RCMP also found evidence that a polling station worker tried to influence a voter, as was reported by the Canadian Press.
This was not the only instance of police investigating and / or charging people for committing voter fraud in the province.
In 2018, two British Columbia residents were charged under the Canada Elections Act for allegedly trying to vote twice in the 2015 federal election, as was reported by local media.
More recently in 2020, Garry Thind, the BC Liberal candidate for Surrey-Fleetwood was accused of elections fraud for allegedly coordinating an effort to request mail-in ballots for constituents, as was reported by local media.
In 2020, Thind was absolved of any wrongdoing after an investigation by Elections B.C.
While these allegations of voter fraud date from 2015 to 2020, they raise concerns that similar attempts to cheat may have occurred in the recent provincial election.
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Political commentator David Simieritsch speculated in a viral video that there could be issues with the mail-in ballots in the recent provincial election, citing the fact employees were allowed to take ballots home.
The NDP is projected to win the recent provincial election, as was reported by CBC News.
There is no evidence at the time of writing that voter fraud occurred in the recent provincial election, despite rampant online speculation.
Both the RCMP and Elections B.C are adamant that the voting process is safe and secure, despite the fact some elections workers were permitted to take ballots home.
UPDATE: The headline of this article was modified to better reflect the contents of the article. The social media image was updated. Some of the language in the article was modified and additional context was added. Read more about our editorial standards.
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