EDMONTON—A former United Conservative Party MLA has written to the RCMP and Alberta’s election commissioner alleging mass voter fraud by Jason Kenney’s campaign during the UCP leadership race.

Prab Gill, a sitting independent MLA who left the UCP after a ballot-stuffing controversy, wrote in the letter sent Monday, “I believe that election laws may have been broken and that the Criminal Code was broken by members of the Jason Kenney UCP leadership campaign.”

A media relations person with the RCMP told Star Edmonton on Wednesday that they had received the letter and have reached out to Alberta’s election commissioner about its contents. They didn’t say whether they were considering an investigation and the allegations are unproven.

The allegations in the letter outline an alleged plot by Kenney’s 2017 UCP leadership campaign to use party memberships in order to fraudulently vote for Kenney as he ran against former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean and Doug Schweitzer.

UCP executive director Janice Harrington told Star Edmonton in an emailed statement that Gill’s letter was peddling falsehoods.

“It’s clear that the NDP ... and a small group of disgruntled, discredited individuals are simply circulating falsehoods to try and foment dissent prior to an election that is critical for the future of Albertans,” she said.

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When members were signed up to the UCP, the letter states, photocopies of personal IDs were required from them. Applicants would have a voting password sent to them by email or text message. The member could then participate in party voting, like the UCP leadership race, using their password.

However, according to Gill’s allegations, thousands of fake email addresses were set up at an unknown “offshore” location and these emails were attached to membership applications.

“It seems that possibly thousands of memberships ‘sold’ by the Jason Kenney UCP leadership campaign had fraudulent email addresses added onto the membership application so that all communication from the party to them (sic) member was sent to an email address that the member did not have access to,” Gill wrote.

“This meant that when the member supplied a copy of their identification to the party to complete their registration to vote, their voting passwords were not sent to them but were instead sent to the person who controlled the fraudulent email address that was attached to their membership.”

He said he was approached by a person involved with Kenney’s campaign who told him of the offshore emails that would be used for voting for Kenney.

Gill also wrote about “Kenney Voting Kiosks” around Alberta. He wrote he had “personal information” of at least one Calgary UCP candidate who worked in one, but the individual’s name is redacted from the letter obtained by Star Edmonton.

He said a “small group of volunteers” worked at this kiosk, which was in a warehouse belonging to a business, but the name of the business does not appear in the letter.

In the letter, another individual’s name involved in another kiosk is redacted along with the location of the kiosk. It isn’t clear if both individuals named for their involvement are one in the same, or separate people. However, Gill writes that there were multiple kiosks around Alberta that participated.

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The member passwords were accessible through these emails, which were accessed by volunteers in these kiosks, wrote Gill. Alleged fraudulent voting occurred at these kiosks over three days while voting was happening, he said.

During the leadership voting, he said he was approached to use voter passwords in order to vote for Kenney, but refused to do so.

“At the time I thought all of this was only cheating and dirty politics,” Gill wrote. “I did not know of any election law that was broken, but since then I have learned that is (sic) may be a violation of the identity fraud section of the Criminal Code.”

Gill further noted that UCP members were told that voter turnout for the leadership race was about 95 per cent of registered voters.

“Yet those of us involved in politics keep hearing from people who say they never got their voting credentials and could not vote,” Gill wrote.

Gill told the RCMP he was “prepared to co-operate in the investigation.”

However, Harrington said UCP hired a private contractor who used strong safeguards to protect against voter fraud in the leadership race.

“For example, all voting members had to physically verify their identity using government-issued ID (driver’s licence, passport, etc.). This was specifically to prevent mass sign-ups of false memberships. Methods were also used to ensure that a high volume of votes were not being cast from the same location,” Harrington said.

“The results of the leadership race were certified legitimate by the security firm, audited by a CPA-designated firm, and all leadership campaigns signed off on the results.”

When contacted by Star Edmonton on Tuesday, Gill said he felt it was his duty as a public servant to bring these concerns to the authorities.

“I have enough information right now. I think it’s my duty to protect democracy and call authorities,” Gill said during a phone interview.

“Now the ball is in their court and they can decide what they want to do with it.”

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