Conservative Party stands by leadership voting process as questions mount

The naming of a new leader was supposed to be a fresh start for a newly united Conservative Party, but a growinglist of complaints over the leadership vote suggests increasing malaise.

One former Conservative cabinet minister who never received his ballot calls it a "fiasco." Other party members have concerns about whogot their hands on personal data. Some in the camp of runner-up Maxime Bernier have been raising questions about the integrity of the vote itself.

Now, one particularly outspoken former candidate Kevin O'Leary is even demanding a recount.

And while a senior Conservative saidthere may be room for "tweaks," the party is standing by the overall process, which saw record membership sign-ups and voter turnout.

"I'm extremely happy with the way this went off," said Dan Nowlan, chair of the party's leadership election organizing committee.

Potential questions of vote's legitimacy

That's not how at leastone party stalwart sees it.

Jay Hill has been involved with the Conservative movement since the 1980s. He was an MP for 17 years and a government House leader and whip under Stephen Harper. He said he contacted the party three times but never received a ballot.

Deepak Obhrai's campaign toldCBC News the candidate's own daughter had to contact the party to get a ballot couriered to her at the 11th hour so she could vote.

Nowlan said he had also heard of instances where people didn't receive their ballots in time.However, he couldn't offer any sense of the scope of the problem.

"Frankly, it's disappointing if any member who wanted to vote didn't get a chance to vote, and that's definitely something we should look at for the future. We need to fix that."

One possibility would be to change the party's constitution to no longer require a mail-in ballot, said Nowlan. He'd like to see the leadership committee have options such as online voting and other technologies when the next vote is held.

Concerns about numbers

Perhaps the most serious concerns raised about the vote come from Bernier's campaign. As first reported by the Globe and Mail, Bernier's camp has raised concerns about a discrepancy in the final ballot count. It points to a difference of about 7,000 votes in the number of ballots the party said were cast and the list of voters given to the various campaigns before the weekend convention.

However, there has been no official complaint to the party yet and Bernier himself tweeted late Tuesday, in English and French, that he "unconditionally" supports Andrew Scheer as leader.

Nowlan said he is confident in the process.

"The party didHerculeanefforts to make sure that every member was in fact a bona fide member that had paid for their own membership. So the membership list to start off with is very, very clean."

He said the lists were not an integral part of the party's process, rather the focus was on the ballots themselves. Nowlan points out they were constantly under scrutiny from auditing firm Deloitte, scrutineers from the various campaigns and webcams.

O'Leary calls for recount

Former candidate O'Leary is going even further.

"I see no reason we should not have arecount. There are a relatively few number of votes to count and I am sure that no leader or the Conservative Party wants to start a new mandate under a vote-count cloud," said O'Leary in an email to CBC News.

That's not possible, said Nowlan. Once the party's chief returning officer and auditing firm Deloitte signed off on the results, a recount could no longer be done. Dozens of scrutineers were also able to raise issues during the vote count itself.

"That's it. No appeal. It's very clear in the rules," said Nowlan, noting those rules have been in place for well over a year.

Membership list leaked

Nowlan said he is concerned about a third party gaining access to the Conservatives' membership list. On Friday, it was revealed the National Firearms Association had obtained the list.

The party's chief returning officer, Dave Filmon, is still investigating to find out who was behind that leak. All 14 leadership candidates have denied responsibility to CBC News.

"Frankly, we don't want to name somebody unless we're absolutely 100 per cent sure that the evidence clearly points to it, but if we have that evidence, yeah, we'll definitely identify who that is."

Nowlan said there have been no other complaints about inappropriate access to the list.

Party defends overall process

While Nowlan acknowledges those concerns, overall he's satisfied with the process.

"We wound up after the leadership race having raised more money than we've ever raised before, with the largest membership we've ever had before and the largest participation of members. I think by any measure that's a success."

And another leadership candidate is coming the party's defence. Third-place finisher Erin O'Toole released a statement Tuesday afternoon.

"Based on my team's experience with the leadership election, I am very confident that the process was run fairly, " it said.

He emphasized the importance of attacking the Liberals rather than fighting internally.

"I stand 100 per cent behind our leader Andrew Scheer and want to keep our members focused on the battle that lies ahead."