Territorial court heard witness testimony in the Tamara Goeppel trial Tuesday before she pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Yukon Elections Act.

Goeppel, the Yukon Liberal Party’s 2016 election candidate for Whitehorse Centre, was fined $1,000 this morning for the offence (see story, p. 2).

She could have faced up to a year in jail, a fine of $5,000 or both.

The ex-candidate had initially pleaded not guilty in 2017 to three charges under the act. The remaining two were withdrawn.

The February 2017 charges were as follows:

• two counts of “aiding or abetting persons in making proxy applications”; and

• one count of “inducing persons to falsely declare on proxy applications that that would be absent” from the territory during the designated hours for voting.

Proxy ballots are meant for those who will likely be away from the territory on advance polling days.

Goeppel was charged just months after the territorial election and after Elections Yukon received a phone call from downtown resident Bruce Dent on Oct. 26 2016, Crown witness David Wilkie testified Monday.

Wilkie is the assistant chief electoral officer with Elections Yukon. He explained that a decision to launch an investigation into Goeppel was made a couple of days later, on Oct. 28.

That came after Dent told the organization that she had asked him to cast a proxy ballot for someone he didn’t know, Wilkie said.

It comes after it was mentioned in court Monday that some of those subpoenaed may have been dealing with alcohol and drug addictions, or living without a fixed address. 

That was relevant to the case, as Goeppel explained publicly at that time that the plight of homeless people was important to her, and maintained she’d had good intentions in arranging proxy voting for vulnerable people.

Part of that confirmation came in November 2016, when the Yukon Liberals released a statement suggesting that she had arranged for proxy voting for about 10 homeless people.

One person Goeppel met with to arrange proxy voting was Earl MacLeod, a one-time Whitehorse resident who testified Tuesday via video link from Vernon, B.C. He had lived in the territory for more than two decades.

MacLeod resided at the Chilkoot Trail Inn at the time. He was visited by Goeppel and another man – who he suspected was “canvassing with her” – who asked him to sign a document.

“I couldn’t be bothered to go down and vote for anybody,” MacLeod said, adding that the two had even offered to give him a ride down to the polling station.

“She said, ‘just sign this and … it’ll be good.’

“Naturally, I just figured it was for voting.”

The court was shown a document with Goeppel’s and MacLeod’s names on it. It was supposedly a proxy application that was in part filled out by somebody other than MacLeod.

“I have no idea but I know my writing and that’s not my writing,” MacLeod said, recalling the document.

“And I know how to spell my name,” he added, referencing the misspelling of his last name on the application in contrast to his signature.

MacLeod suggested he did not have an intention to vote, though, recalling: “I haven’t voted in 40 years, and I’m not going to start now.”

MacLeod continued that he “more than likely” had plans to leave the territory, but did not share that intention with Goeppel and the man.

“It’s not their concern anyway,” he told the court.

Judge John Faulkner noted that “there was a certain absence of clarity” in some of MacLeod’s testimony after an objection was raised by the defence from Crown questioning.

Shortly after MacLeod’s questioning, Wilkie took the stand for cross-examination by Richard Fowler, Goeppel’s lawyer.

He suggested there were inconsistencies in language when it came to rules involving proxy voting.

Fowler pointed out that a letter sent from Goeppel’s lawyer at the time was received by Elections Yukon on Oct. 28, 2016.

That was the same day a meeting was held among Wilkie, officials with Elections Yukon and legal counsel, and just two days after Dent’s phone call.

Wilkie testified that a response to the letter was discussed at the meeting.

Fowler referenced handwritten notes from that meeting that he said suggested a “misunderstanding.

“One interpretation is an acknowledgment that there’s a difference between publications of Elections Yukon,” Fowler told the court Tuesday.

“The documents don’t exactly have a consistent theme or consistent language,” Fowler suggested – to which Wilkie nodded: “it’s slightly different.”

Part of those publications included excerpts of the act, information provided on Elections Yukon’s webpages and wording on related proxy application forms themselves.

Part of the act, Fowler said, read that proxy voting can apply to any elector “who has reason to believe voting may not be possible ... (because) of an absence from the Yukon.” The section on proxy voting was repealed after that year’s election.

Supporting documentation to vote by proxy referenced in court contained a box that could be check-marked if the person “shall be absent” from the territory.

Meanwhile, Fowler pointed out that information provided on the website referenced being “away” on election day.

“It doesn’t clarify what being away means,” Fowler said.

Wilkie acknowledged there were “slight differences” across publications.

The letter sent from Goeppel’s lawyer on Oct. 28, Fowler furthered, was an exercise of his client’s “diligence … as soon as it was brought to her attention that there might be a problem.”

Wilkie was then dismissed from further questioning after a morning recess.

Two other witnesses appeared in court Tuesday morning but were told to return the today.

As the trial was essentially cancelled after Goeppel’s guilty plea, they did not testify.