Embattled Rob Ford just can’t seem to keep out of the limelight. The latest on the former crack-smoking, alcohol-imbibing, rehabbed Toronto mayor — who is currently running for a city council seat — is that he’s been kicked out of three different voter polling places and accused of illegal campaigning.
Mr. Ford, by law, isn’t allowed to remain at any places of voting outside of Ward 2, where he’s seeking a council seat. But on three consecutive days last week, Mr. Ford outright ignored requests to leave other polling site — including one in a letter from a city clerk that informed he was violating the Municipal Elections Act, The Star reported.
Mr. Ford, meanwhile, said he was only trying to get voters “safely” to the polling station and is supporting his brother Doug Ford’s mayoral run, The Star reported.
He said in a brief statement reported by The Star: “I’m going to go and I’m going to help people vote. That is what my job is. People want a lift, so I drop people off.”
City officials said he wasn’t just giving people a ride, and his presence at the polling sites was against the law.
“There was no evidence the mayor was campaigning on the site or telling people how to vote,” City of Toronto spokeswoman Jackie DeSouza, said in the Star. “However, only electors, election staff and scrutineers are permitted in the voting place, so he was asked to leave.”
This is the first time in city history that a mayor has been booted from a polling place — never mind three over three consecutive days, The Star reported.
“I’m pretty sure we can chalk this one up as another first for the Ford mayoralty,” Ryerson University politics professor Myer Siemiatycki said to The Star. “There is no precedent for this kind of thing.”
Mr. Siemiatycki also said that Mr. Ford was spending considerable time posing for pictures with voters at the sites and that goes above and beyond his claim that he was simply trying to safely transport them to the polling stations.
“[That] crosses the line and goes beyond just dropping off voters,” he said, The Star reported.
Mr. Ford was recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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