SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A lawyer hired by Daryl Dolynny says the candidate, who appears to have lost in Range Lake during Monday's territorial election by 10 votes, wants to ensure all ballots have been properly counted.

Results in YK districts up for recount

"I think it's appropriate that Daryl is going to take the whole process very seriously," Caroline Wawzonek told Yellowknifer yesterday. "He wants to make sure the rules are followed, wants to make sure that the recount is done according to the rules and for the people in Range Lake who took the time to vote, he wants to make sure to the best possible degree that those votes are all counted appropriately."

Asked if there is a belief that votes weren't counted properly, she said she has no reason to believe there was an intention to not count ballots properly.

Wawzonek said there were several rejected ballots. Ballots can be rejected if a person has not properly indicated who they are voting for.

Judicial recounts are required for Range Lake and Yellowknife North because the margin of victory - within two per cent - requires it under the NWT Elections and Plebiscites Act. The counts are set for Tuesday in NWT Supreme Court, according to the publicly-posted Supreme Court docket.

Elections NWT, which is responsible for filing applications for the recounts with the courts, refused to answer questions from Yellowknifer on Wednesday and Thursday about whether the applications for recounts had been filed. The recount must be held within 10 days of the application being filed.

"Further information will be released as it becomes available," spokesperson Adrienne Cartwright wrote in an e-mailed response to a list of questions.

The newspaper also sought to find out whether media will be able to observe the recount.

While Elections NWT wouldn't address the question, justice department spokesperson Sue Glowach said the recounts will happen in open court, meaning anyone from the public can attend.

The apparent victors in the two city electoral districts subject to recounts are expressing confidence the results of the territorial election will be upheld.

"We're confident that the numbers won't change and if they do, they will be very little," said Cory Vanthuyne. He received 35.77 per cent of the votes in Yellowknife North, while his former city council colleague Dan Wong received 34.31 per cent. There, 16 votes separated the two.

Unofficial results released Monday show Caroline Cochrane-Johnson received 50.76 per cent of the votes cast in Range Lake while incumbent Dolynny had 49.24 per cent.

Cochrane-Johnson said she's eager to have the recount settled so the results are clear.

Elections NWT issued a news release Tuesday stating it intended to file an application for judicial recounts in Range Lake, Yellowknife North, the Sahtu and Nunakput districts.

It was revealed by Elections NWT on Wednesday a judicial recount in the Sahtu is not required because 163 votes were added to the originally released totals. It means a mandatory recount is not required.

Chief electoral officer Nicole Latour stated in an e-mail the discrepancy was caused by a data entry error uncovered as the official results were being prepared.

In light of that, Vanthuyne said he has confidence in Elections NWT officials who carried out the counting of votes which was observed by scrutineers.

"We have no reason to think otherwise, based on what we've observed," he said. "That's very interesting to hear coming out to of the Sahtu but in our particular riding we feel that they were fairly accurate in the count."

Cochrane-Johnson expressed a similar sentiment about Range Lake. "Both teams had people representing us at the polls, plus Elections NWT, so I'm waiting for the final result to come in," said Cochrane-Johnson.

Yellowknifer called cell phone numbers for Dolynny and Wong. Neither phoned back by press time.

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