I have been told court has been adjourned to March 26th 2021 9:30 for a continuation of the Judicial Pre-Trial.
Back in February 2020,
Essex, Ont. Mayor Larry Snively has been charged by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) for allegedly “procuring” ineligible voters to cast ballots during the town’s October 2018 municipal election.
The Mayor’s comments during the March 2nd 2020 meeting, the first one after the charges,
” I just want to say something about the proxy issue, last week I was charged with one count of encouraging someone to vote that was not entitled to vote, one, I repeat one count. I want to ensure the public that I did not do this and I am not guilty of knowingly doing anything wrong during the election. The people behind this have their reasons for attacking me and it has been going on since I got elected before I got elected and everyone knows why. I am not guilty and that will be shown in court. In the meantime I have no intentions of stepping down as mayor. I will not step down. This council is so proactive we are going in the right direction, we have huge development in this town and I am not going to let that fail. The town is running very well better than it has in years. We have finally development happening again because investors trust, trust us again because the old wars are over. we finally have all the staff positions filled with good young ready to take this town forward. Young people are very very knowledgeable about what they are doing and we are going in the right direction. we just passed our budget in years we have never had a zero percent tax, we do this year. We are spending millions of dollars on both town Centres, Harrow and Essex Centre both. This is going to be a great year for Essex with lots of progress and lots of housing coming down. Don’t let a few angry people spoil that because they want to make a good council look bad for their own political reasons. Thank you”
A report from the Clerks Office in July 2020 suggests this
That for the next Municipal election the Clerk’s Office will only issue the required Form
3 directly to qualified electors who wish to appoint another person to vote on their
behalf. Such qualified electors will be able to request and obtain the required Form 3
at Town Hall at the Clerk’s Office during specified times and at such time Box A on
Form 3 (the section of Form 3 in which the elector making appointment is identified)
will be completed by Election/Town Staff and entered into the Town of Essex Proxy
Appointment Registry showing the name of the elector making the appointment. If
such qualified elector is not able to attend to Town Hall to obtain the required Form 3
then such Form may be requested by that elector to be mailed directly to the electors
address and such Form will be mailed upon Box A again being completed by
Election/Town Staff at the time of mail-out with the appropriate entry into the Town of
Essex Proxy Appointment Registry.
The full report from the Clerks office can be viewed here:
Election Review of Policies and Procedures (escribemeetings.com)
Further from the motion from Sept 3rd 2019 more polices and improvements are coming.
(R19-09-376) That Council direct Administration to review and report
on election policies, including the use of corporate resources and the
sign by-law, but excluding the review and report on proxy voting.
At that time proxy voting was taken out due to the ongoing investigation.
Essex, Ont. mayor charged with violating Elections Act | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/essex-mayor-charged-election-violation-1.5476391
Essex, Ont. mayor charged with violating Elections Act in 2018 | Globalnews.ca
Mayor of Essex charged by OPP in 2018 election investigation | Windsor Star
Essex mayor charged with elections violation | CTV News
Essex, Ont. mayor charged with violating Elections Act (msn.com)
