Judge orders ballot recount in tight Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore race

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With just 77 votes separating the top two candidates in Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, a judge with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Friday ordered an official recount of all ballots cast in that riding’s tight federal race.

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Liberal candidate Irek Kusmierczyk, who had served as the riding’s member of Parliament since 2019, applied to the court for a recount, pointing to several tabulation errors and a significant number of rejected ballots, which further narrowed an already razor-thin count on election night.

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Conservative candidate Kathy Borrelli’s lead over Kusmierczyk was reduced from 233 votes following the initial Elections Canada count to 77 — a mere seven votes shy of an automatic recount.

“We got a shot,” Kusmierczyk told reporters outside the Superior Court of Justice in Windsor Friday afternoon, shortly after the judicial decision.

“That’s all we asked for. We got a shot, and now it’s up to the recount teams and counsel in order for us to look at those ballots and make those arguments, but we got a shot, and we’re grateful.”

During a virtual hearing held Friday afternoon, Windsor Justice J. Ross MacFarlane said he was satisfied with the submissions put forth by Jeff Hewitt, a lawyer representing Kusmierczyk, and granted the order for a judicial recount.

Irek did a good job

Hewitt told the application hearing that election ballot validity hinges on two factors: the marked ballot cannot reveal the voter’s identity, and it must clearly show the voter’s intent.

He said many of the rejected ballots flagged by volunteer election scrutineers were rejected despite the voter’s intention being made clear.

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One example he cited was a rejected ballot marked with an X selecting Kusmierczyk, but in the margins the voter wrote: ‘Irek did a good job.’

Hewitt offered several more examples of incorrectly marked ballots where the voter’s intent was still evident.

“We knew from the very beginning that we had questions and we knew…there were ballots that had been rejected wrongly, and those numbers were adding up,” said Kusmierczyk.

“Really what is the focus here is to make sure that the residents of this riding, of this community, have 100 per cent confidence and clarity in the outcome of this election.”

Conservative candidate Kathy Borrelli’s counsel did not make any submissions during Friday’s proceedings.

When reached by the Star Friday afternoon, Borrelli said she would send a statement, but did not immediately do so.

Borrelli recently returned to Windsor after spending the week in Ottawa with newly elected Windsor West Conservative MP Harb Gill and Essex MP Chris Lewis for an official orientation.

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A judicial recount is automatically triggered when the difference between the two leading candidates is less than one one-thousandth of the total votes cast. That threshold would have been met by a 70-vote difference between the two candidates.

In applying to the court on Monday for permission to proceed with a judicial recount, Kusmierczyk cited 526 rejected ballots and more than 20 “discrepancies” in the count, four of which changed the ballot tally by 157 votes.

Elections Canada’s preliminary results following Monday’s election had Borrelli at 31,901 votes and Kusmierczyk at 31,668.

As of Friday, the official count for Borrelli stood at 32,062 votes, with Kusmierczyk at 31,985.

Counsel for both candidates, along with representatives from Elections Canada and Justice MacFarlane, will reconvene Monday, May 12, to set a date for the recount to begin.

Kusmierczyk explained that legal counsel for both parties will gather teams of volunteers to scrutinize every ballot — much like they did on election night. Elections Canada will also conduct a recount independently.

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However, Kusmierczyk said the judge will have the final say on which of the more than 70,000 ballots cast are deemed valid.

When asked if he believed the recount could shift the outcome in his favour, Kusmierczyk said he was “feeling confident.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney leads a Liberal minority government with just a few House of Commons seats short of a majority.

“I want to stand with Prime Minister Mark Carney to fight for our community here in Windsor-Essex, ” said Kusmierczyk.

“We are running towards the fight. We want to fight for this community in what we’re facing from the Trump tariffs and the economic warfare from the United States.”

mmazak@postmedia.com

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