British Columbia voter fraud headline not referring to 2024 contest

"RCMP in BC confirm voter fraud occurred," claims an October 27, 2024 post on X. 

Other posts on X and Facebook claimed that Canada's national police force found fraudulent applications for mail-in ballots. 

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Screenshot of an X post taken October 29, 2024

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Screenshot of a Facebook post taken October 29, 2024

The October 28 announcement that a final count of mail-in and absentee ballots had lifted the ruling British Columbia New Democratic Party to victory over the Conservative Party of British Columbia (archived here), led to posts questioning the integrity of the current election. This followed unfounded claims of polling interference, debunked by AFP. 

Allegations that the RCMP confirmed voter fraud in the recent British Columbia election are similarly misleading. The RCMP confirmed to AFP in an October 28 email that the supposed evidence in the posts was not about the 2024 provincial election.

"The claims on social media are referencing the 2018 investigation into the civic election," said RCMP spokesman Kris Clark.

Many of the posts link to or include a screenshot of an October 27 article from the outlet Toronto 99, with variations of the title: "RCMP confirm voter fraud occurred in British Columbia election." Archives of the page reveal it once bore that banner, but the story's current headline is: "British Columbia has a history of voter fraud - RCMP (UPDATED)."

The article discusses the 2018 investigation, a 2020 provincial election fraud allegation and a 2015 case where two people were charged for trying to vote twice in a federal election. The Toronto 99 article does not report any evidence of voter fraud in the recent provincial election.

2018 investigation

The RCMP shared the expired press releases for the 2018 investigation into voter fraud during British Columbia's civic elections. According to the documents, the national police force was called in to look at irregularities found in applications for mail-in ballots.

After interviewing the individuals whose personal information was used to request the voting materials the RCMP said it found 69 out of the 73 applications examined were fraudulent.

The press releases noted at the time that the RCMP had not found evidence linking the activity to any candidate or party and said after the flagging of the irregularities on the paperwork, the ballots were never mailed out to be cast in an election.

Elections BC, said in an October 28, 2024 email to AFP that it is only responsible for provincial elections and was therefore not involved in the local 2018 investigation. 

No voter fraud prosecutions

Elections BC spokesman Wesley MacInnis said there have been no prosecutions of voter fraud in provincial elections.

"We investigate any potential cases that come to our attention, but we have not received any complaints about voter fraud that were substantiated as a potential contravention of the BC Election Act," he said (archived here).

Local media reported Elections BC found no evidence of wrongdoing after the 2020 election fraud accusations mentioned in the Toronto 99 article.

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.