A Kelowna woman who ran as a city council candidate in the 2022 municipal election is being fined by Elections BC.
Elaine McMurray must pay $100 for sponsoring election advertising without an authorization statement.
McMurray, who received 6,292 votes or 2.93 per cent of the vote, had a complaint regarding a lawn sign filed against her on Sept. 12.
According to Elections BC, the sign promoted McMurray for council, however, the compliance team had to contact the candidate to remind her that she must include all information required in an authorization statement going forward and take steps to correct the ads.
McMurray purchased 300 sticker labels and applied them to her 150 double-sided signs. She then sent Elections BC information indicating that she had spent $3,312 on the 15 double-sided lawn signs.
However, investigators found that McMurray was in contravention of Section 44 (1) of the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act as she erected the lawn signs during the pre‐campaign period and they did not contain the required information.
The infraction meant that McMurray could be penalized up to $5,000, yet BC Elections found the contravention of the act to not be egregious and therefore only fined her $100.
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@Jen_zee
jen.zielinski@bpdigital.ca
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