City investigating allegations of a premarked ballot in Ward 30

TORONTO – The city is investigating allegations of a premarked ballot for Paula Fletcher in Ward 30.

The Liz West campaign sent out a press release shortly after 7p.m. Monday saying a voter had been given a ballot with a “full black line” marking the ballot for Fletcher.

“This was no small line or casual mistake – the ballot was cast with a full black line, making it clear the vote was for Fletcher,” Garreth Wheeler, the boyfriend of the elector who got the allegedly pre-marked ballot, said in the campaign statement.

“This is very sketchy. How is an already filled out ballot for just one councillor given out to a voter? This should be looked into. ”

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The alleged ballot was handed out at Poll 23 in Ward 30.

Fletcher’s campaign manager Nat Smith said in a telephone interview Monday evening the campaign has “no idea what’s going on” and pointed out the city is responsible for distributing ballots.

“We’re not aware of what happened at the polling station other than what we read on Twitter,” he said. “We’re not aware of anything related to this.”

“A supervisor from Election Services was sent to the location as soon as it was brought to our attention,” said Wynna Brown, manager of media relations and issues for the City. “It’s the only incident that I’m aware of.”