Joe McWilliams
For South Peace News
Feb. 26, Scott Sinclair won the United Conservative Party nomination for Lesser Slave Lake. It was a very tight result, with just three votes the margin of victory over Martine Carifelle.
As of March 3, Carifelle had filed an appeal.
“Martine is contesting the nomination (result),” says UCP constituency association president Gordon Ferguson.
What that means, according to a UCP news release on March 3, is a recount of the ballots, to take place March 8.
Voting in the Feb. 25 and Feb. 26 UCP election was by a ‘ranked’ or ‘preferential’ system. Voters could rank the candidates by preference. To win a candidate had to get 244 votes, or 50 per cent plus one. Under that system, if no one has the sufficient number on the first ballot, the counting is done again, with the last-place candidate removed, and those ballots (the ones on which that person was the first choice) second choice candidates getting those votes added. This continues until there is a clear winner. It took three such counts to put Sinclair over the top.
In total, 487 UCP members voted.
Ferguson isn’t sure of the vote breakdown by polling station, but he does know that 153 people voted in High Prairie, and that Carifelle won there “handily.”. Sinclair carried Slave Lake. Silas Yellowknee probably did well in Wabasca, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
Sinclair says there is a lesson to be learned from the vote; every vote matters.
UCP Nomination Vote
First Ballot
Martine Carifelle 232
Scott Sinclair 229
Jerrad Cunningham 47
Silas Yellowknee 40
Votes Required 275
(Yelllowknee eliminated)
Second Ballot
Scott Sinclair 258
Martine Carifelle 232
Jerrad Cunningham 48
Votes Required 258
(Cunningham eliminated)
Third Ballot
Scott Sinclair 245
Martine Carifelle 242