BC Greens have started to elect their new leader with process under observation

As the B.C. Green Party has started to elect their new leader, one candidate says she is paying close attention to the election process as the party looks to verify thousands of new members before announcing the winner on Sept. 24. 

Emily Lowan said she is advocating to have an extension of the leadership vote until the vast majority of new members are verified, and says she's retained legal council. 

Voting started Saturday for verified party members and ends Sept. 23, but Lowan has expressed concerns about the party's ability to verify all new members by Sept. 22 with the party citing the threat of foreign interference as reason for the verification process. 

Lowan is running for the leadership against Jonathan Kerr and Adam Bremner-Akins, and has previously called for changes that she says would simplify the verifications.

They include accepting credit card payments as verification proof for non-youth-members, and adding more staff.

Looming over the process, though, is the possibility of Lowan suing the party under the Societies Act. When asked about her criteria for legal actions against the party, Lowan said she is not prepared to share that publicly. 

"I am not suing the party," she said. "I have retained counsel to support this process, to ensure that all voters can have their voices heard." 

Lowan added that she shared her concerns with the party through a letter dated Aug. 28 from her lawyer. "But predominantly, I asserted my desire to find solutions without legal dispute," she said. 

The letter says that the "verification process as proposed is cumbersome, unnecessary, discriminatory and prejudicial" to Lowan, her campaign and her supporters.

The party has since posted its response to Lowan's letter in a letter from its lawyer dated Sept. 1, rejecting the allegations. 

The letter says that Lowan is "simply making bare assertions speculating that new members she has signed up will not cast ballots in her favour and that this will be because of the verification requirement." 

The letter from the party's lawyer also includes a warning concerning future litigation. "We hope for the sake of all involved and the health of the party, that is not the direction she chooses," it reads. 

Interim leader Jeremy Valeriote said in a news release Thursday that 40 per cent of all new members have been verified, adding party has the capacity and resources to verify the identity of all new, eligible members who want to vote in the leadership contest. 

The news release also confirmed that verification would continue until the end of Sept. 22, the day before voting ends.

The party says members verified after Sept. 13 will receive their ballots within 24 hours of verification. It says it has established five verification methods: online verification through a system called Vaultie, virtual meetings, drop-in-sessions, member vouching and in-person options. 

Lowan said she is hopeful the party can "verify at least 80 per cent, the vast majority" of new members in time for them to cast their ballots. 

"I want to be clear that I'm working constructively with the party to find solutions," she said. "We collectively really want to increase this verification rate." 

But she also pointed to what she says are limits around the existing verification processes, such as delays through the Vaultie system and limited spaces for virtual meetings outside of weekday work hours. 

"I think the party is acting in good faith, but is deeply under-resourced," she said. "I believe Elections BC should be handling leadership races across parties." 

The Canadian Press reached to the BC Greens for updated membership numbers, as well as the number of verified memberships, but did not immediately receive a response. 

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — B.C. Green Party