A second candidate who ran in the Saanich municipal election has been issued a fine by Elections BC.
Vernon Lord, who also previously ran in 2018, has been fined $150.
According to a letter sent to Lord by Elections BC, he put up about 20 lawn signs without an authorization statement.
Lord told Elections BC the signs were re-used from his 2018 election and that he wasn’t sure if the signs previously had authorization stickers that had fallen off in storage.
“Either way, you indicated that you realized that you should have checked the signs to confirm that they had an authorization statement,” the letter says.
This type of omission is subject to fines of up to $5,000. Elections BC issued a fine of $150 because the contravention was not egregious, the signs likely have a market value of about $500, the lack of authorization would not have misled a reader, he said the omission was inadvertent, once Elections BC contacted him he fixed the signs, and he has not previously been fined.
The letter states Lord has 14 days to request a review of the finding.
Lord ran for a councillor position in Saanich, coming in 20th with 3,822 votes.
Prior to this fine, former-mayor Fred Haynes was also issued a fine by Elections BC for a similar reason.
So far, six candidates have had fines issued to them by Elections BC for the Oct. 15 municipal election.
Two candidates from Saanich, one from Victoria, two from the Delta School District, and one from Kelowna.
The Pacific Prosperity Foundation was also issued two fines for failing to register before sponsoring election advertising.
Laura Brougham
