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Former Central Alberta MLA appealing fine for not protecting a list of 20,000 electors

List included names and addresses of voters in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre
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A former Central Alberta MLA is appealing a $500 fine, and questioning the powers of Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer, after a list of 20,000 electors was found in a filing cabinet sold as surplus inventory.

More than 1,000 pages of voter information, totalling more than 20,000 electors, were found in a filing cabinet sold to a consulting firm after it was declared surplus inventory by Service Alberta in 2015. The list of electors included the names and addresses of people who voted in the Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre constituency in the 2012 provincial election.

As a result of an investigation, Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer fined Joe Anglin $500 saying he had not taken reasonable steps to protect a list of electors from loss or unauthorized use.

Anglin has appealed that fine, but suffered a setback on Friday when his request for more documents and more information about why the CEO levied the fine was dismissed by Justice Kevin Feehan in Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench. However, Feehan allowed Anglin to argue about the constitutionality of the CEO’s authority.

“In plain English, I am claiming the power legislated to, and exercised by the CEO, is a violation of the fundamental protections afforded to me in the Canadian Constitution,” Angline wrote in an email to the Advocate.

“The current Alberta Election Act provides that the CEO can file a complaint against an individual, act as the investigator, act as the prosecutor and sit as the presiding judge.”

After an election, each member of the Legislative Assembly is entitled to a copy of the list of electors in their constituency.

The filing cabinet was originally at the Sundre constituency office of Joseph Anglin, before it was taken to the Alberta Legislature Annex Building in 2014.

On Jan. 29, 2015, the filing cabinet was declared surplus inventory, and sold on March 11, 2015 to a consulting firm through Service Alberta.

The firm’s owner discovered the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet was jammed. He managed to open it and discovered the Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre list of electors. He reported the discovery of the list and they were turned over to the Chief Electoral Officer.

Anglin served as MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre from 2012 until the April 23, 2015 provincial election when he lost to Wildrose candidate Jason Nixon, who is now a United Conservative Party MLA.

Anglin was a member of the Wildrose party until November 2014, when he sat as an independent MLA.

Anglin is also appealing a $250 fine from the Chief Electoral Officer, saying the information relating to the sponsor of his election signs were too small.



mcrawford@reddeeradvocate.com

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