Jarvis: Snively compromised the election, Bondy called him

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For the first time in the ugly three-year saga of the 34 wrongfully obtained proxy votes from the 2018 Essex election, Mayor Larry Snively has done the right thing.

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He has resigned.

He could not be removed from office because he was convicted under the Municipal Law, not the Penal Code, and the number of proxies was less than his margin of victory, 117 votes.

And he wasn’t going to give up initially. After pleading guilty and receiving a $10,000 fine in provincial felony court on Friday, he informed council and city staff that he “intends to serve the remainder of this term,” according to a city statement on Friday. Friday.

Which showed that he still did not understand the meaning of what he did. And he has a lot of nerve.

When he finally decided to resign, it was voluntarily, he wrote in a letter Wednesday to the clerk, council and residents. But Count. Sherry Bondy had notified the deputy mayor and clerk that she wanted an emergency motion asking him to resign.

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So he was spared further humiliation and his supporters on the council, who were no doubt looking at their own political careers, a very awkward vote.

He made the decision “with regret,” he wrote. But he did not say he regretted depriving some residents of the privilege of voting and having a voice in their government, as Justice of the Peace Susan Hoffman called it.

The agreed statement of facts in the case shows Snively, the matchmaker, running around Essex pairing up electors and proxy voters to cast votes for them.

The rules are clear: It is illegal for a voter to sign a proxy form before the proxy voter has completed it. But in all cases, the voter signed the form before the proxy was named on it.

Each proxy voter took an oath that they had received voting instructions from the electors they represented. But none of them had.

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Some voters were told who their proxy would be, but police determined that they had different proxies. Some voters and their proxies did not even know each other. Snively got his sister-in-law, Susan Grunder, to vote for an elector.

Peter Cantarutti’s mother was 82 years old and ill when she gave her vote to a proxy. He is her power of attorney, but he didn’t find out she had signed the form until after the election. She told police she didn’t remember anything about it.

Walter Kraehling’s mother was 93 years old when she signed the form Snively gave her. Kraehling is his proxy, but he wasn’t there. Snively did not tell the proxy voter she got for her how to vote, but the person told police she “assumed that because Mr. Snively brought her the form, Mrs. Kraehling would vote for Mr. Snively.”

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Carlos Teves was 83 years old, suffering from dementia and did not speak English when Snively spoke with him and his wife about the elections. Teves’ wife told Snively that he doesn’t normally vote. He told her that “they could sign some papers to vote.”

Snively asked a man to help Amilia Gomes vote. The man said yes, thinking that she needed a ride to the urn. When Snively told him he would vote on his behalf, he wasn’t sure. But he “trusted” Snively, so he agreed. They went to Gomes’ house, where Snively and Gomes talked. But the man did not know what they were saying. They were speaking Portuguese. Gomes told police that Snively told him “it was important that he sign the paper.” When the man saw her sign it, he thought she was voting for Snively.

“I didn’t really realize I was doing anything wrong at the time,” Snively told the court. “After the fact, I realized that I did and I sincerely apologize for that.”

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But this wasn’t his first rodeo. As his attorney Pat Ducharme told the court, he has been on the council for 12 years. One woman told police that “it was not unusual for Mr. Snively to ask his family to vote by proxy.”

The town had provided all the candidates with a folder containing the electoral rules. Power of attorney forms also include instructions. There were complaints about the misuse of proxy votes during the campaign, so the municipality sent reminders to all candidates.

Every vote matters, as Hoffman said. That is democracy. Proxies allow people who can’t go to a vote to still have a voice. But what Snively did betrayed the voters and compromised the election.

Bondy first raised concerns about the misuse of proxy votes during the campaign. For the next three years, he doggedly pursued the truth. After police finally charged Snively, she led the campaign for stricter rules governing proxy voting, passed last year.

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And his life became “a living hell,” he said.

She was the problem, Snively and her followers said. She was smeared, harassed, ostracized, she says.

Bondy’s libel suit against former councilor Paul Innes, first reported by Doug Schmidt of the Windsor Star, shows how serious it was. Her statement of claim, which has not been tested in court, shows Innes’ Facebook posts about her partners, children and sex life. The suggestion is that she is “devoid of moral character” and an “unfit mother”.

It is something extraordinarily ugly that I will not dignify by repeating the details.

It smacks of punishing anyone, especially a woman, who doesn’t belong to the old men’s club, doesn’t follow the rules, and holds people accountable.

Fortunately, some people can’t be intimidated, like Bondy.

Essex voters owe him a big thank you.

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