Electoral fraud did occur during the May 2, 2011 federal election, a federal court judge ruled on Thursday.

But there is no proof it affected the outcomes, so the elections, including the one in the Yukon, will not be overturned.

The case was brought forward by the Council of Canadians.

It focused on six ridings across the country, including the Yukon, where then-Conservative challenger Ryan Leef beat incumbent Liberal Larry Bagnell by 132 votes out of the 16,124 cast.

The case centres around "robocalls” – phone calls received by voters falsely informing them that their polling stations had been moved.

In his decision, federal Court Judge Richard Mosley said, "The calls struck at the integrity of the electoral process by attempting to dissuade voters from casting ballots for their preferred candidates.

"This form of ‘voter suppression' was, until the 41st General Election, largely unknown in this country.”

However, in the end, the judge found "that electoral fraud occurred during the 41st General Election, but I am not satisfied that it has been established that the fraud affected the outcomes in the subject ridings, and I decline to exercise my discretion to annul the results in those district.”

According to the decision, a phone survey following the election contacted 466 people in the Yukon, of whom 36 per cent (or 168 people) said they had been called and told that their polling station had changed.

Of those, approximately eight people, or 1.7 per cent of the original 466, said they then did not vote.

"Apart from the survey, there is no evidence that the election results in the six ridings would have turned out differently,” the judge said.

"This is not a case of disappearing ballots or tampering with voting machines, as in some of the American cases in which survey evidence has been accepted.

"Here, the survey is offered to establish that some voters, a sufficient number in each riding to overcome the margin of victory, would have voted but for the effect of a telephone call directing them to the wrong polling location.

"None of those voters have come forward to confirm the results.

"The survey evidence, in this case, does not provide firm ground on which the court could have confidence in finding that the fraud affected the results in any of the six ridings.

"I am, therefore, not satisfied that the survey is a reliable evidentiary basis upon which to cast doubt on the winner in each contest even where the margin of victory was close.”

Mosley ruled there is no evidence to suggest candidates nor their agents had been involved in the fraud.

"Had I found that any of the successful electoral candidates or their agents were implicated in any way in the fraudulent activity, I would not have hesitated to exercise my discretion to annul the result .... No such evidence was led,” the judge said.

From Ottawa, Leef told the Star today the decision "confirmed what we already knew all along – that there was no improper behaviour by me or any of the other candidates.”

Leef said the major issue to come out of the ruling was that "the credibility of the vote was not affected.”

The first-term MP said the decision "still leaves some questions” about exactly how the fraud happened, and "Canadians' right to know what went on.”

The evidence points to "a concerted campaign by persons who had access to a database of voter information maintained by a political party,” Mosley said.

The judge did not point at any particular political party.

"I make no finding that the CPC, any CPC candidates...were directly involved in the campaign to mislead voters. To require the applicants to identify the perpetrators of the misleading calls would impose an impossibly high standard of proof.

"I am satisfied, however, that the most likely source of the information used to make the misleading calls was the CIMS database maintained and controlled by the CPC, accessed for that purpose by a person or persons currently unknown to this Court.

"There is no evidence to indicate that the use of the CIMS database in this manner was approved or condoned by the CPC.

"Rather the evidence points to elaborate efforts to conceal the identity of those accessing the database and arranging for the calls to be made.”

Bagnell told the Star today he has no comment on the ruling. Neither did Sue Edelman, the returning officer for the 2011 election.

Though the Council of Canadians did not get exactly what it was looking for — a new election for the six ridings in question — it's still claiming victory.

"This is a victory for the individual applicants, for the thousands of donors who stepped up to pay their legal bills, and for Canadian democracy,” executive director Garry Neil said in a statement.

"A senior Federal Court judge found that the election was marred by widespread fraudulent activities, not just in Guelph (Ont.) but across the country.”

The council is consulting with the applicants and lawyers as they consider an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. If these consultations conclude, there is a chance the Supreme Court could overturn the Conservative MPs' narrow victories, and the council would pay the necessary legal fees.

"Perhaps the greatest victory of this case is the awareness it created among Canadian voters,” said Neil.

"No political party will dare try to trick us out of our votes this way again.”

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