‘Implausibly high’ number of votes in Cape Breton school board election could happen again

Thousands of ineligible ballots were cast in the 2020 Cape Breton-Victoria district election for the French school board, and without a list of voters, there are concerns the same thing could happen this fall.

Cape Breton University political scientist Tom Urbaniak says more than 4,000 votes were cast last time, even though the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board estimated only 1,135 were eligible in that district for the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP).

“If the 2020 election was legitimate, which I believe it was not for the board member to represent CBRM and Victoria County on the CSAP board, what we’re saying is that the utility and review board’s estimate is off wildly,” Urbaniak said.

“The number of voters was many times higher than what should have been the legitimate number of voters by any indicator.”

In May, the utility and review board (UARB) approved a CSAP application to reduce the number of school board members provincewide from 18 to 13, and to adjust the boundaries of one district.

In its decision, the UARB said CSAP now operates 23 schools with 6,318 students, representing 48,610 entitled voters.

In the Cape Breton-Victoria district, it said the number of voters was 1,135 in 2020 and is now estimated at 2,225.

Number of voters difficult to determine

The UARB said it has been difficult to determine the accurate number of eligible voters because census data only included Acadian entitled voters starting in 2021.

However, it said, “the accuracy of the data was still unclear because it was only collected by those completing the full questionnaire. It is also generally acknowledged that some entitled persons do not self-identify.”

The UARB refused to rule on voter eligibility, saying that was not in its jurisdiction.

Urbaniak said part of the problem is that provincial legislation sets out the eligibility criteria and makes it clear that voters are to self-declare their requirement for a ballot.

Only those whose first language is French or whose child is in a French-language-first program can vote for a French school representative.

There is no evidence of intentional cheating in 2020, Urbaniak said, but what he called the “implausibly high” number of ballots was likely due to confusion.

Urbaniak said voters were given a lengthy questionnaire full of legalese to determine who was eligible.

Voters may not have fully understood that the provincial government eliminated English-language school boards in 2018 and having voted in previous school board elections, simply declared they were eligible in 2020, he said.

And that’s not just a problem for voters or the school board. It would also affect French school board candidates.

“Can you imagine running in an election where you don’t even know who the voters are going to be, where that’s not determined until election day itself?” Urbaniak said.

The organization that represents French school parents in Nova Scotia, the Fédération des parents acadiens de la Nouvelle-Écosse, was hoping the province would fix the system before this fall’s elections, but that hasn’t happened.

Nicole Dupuis, the organization’s executive director, said they are calling for a proper list of voters to ensure election results are legitimate.

“Until we either establish a list of electors or something of that sort, it’ll be hard to determine whether it’s fair or not,” she said.

Province trusts voters

Dupuis said it’s not clear why the province didn’t solve the problem while it was amending the CSAP legislation earlier this year.

In an email, Education Department spokesperson Alex Burke said the minister was unavailable for comment.

However, department officials expect “all voters to respect election laws and trust that those who are self-declaring as entitled to vote for a CSAP board member are doing so in good faith,” Burke said.

Both the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board and the Education Department said anyone with concerns about eligibility should contact the provincial or municipal elections offices.