Sometimes A Cheque Is Just A Cheque...

...And Sometimes a GeoVote Is Just A GeoVote.

Well, whadd'ya know....

The McMaher duo have another one on the line.

This time the story is from 2008 and it involves the FedCon's Robocall pointman Dean Del Mastro.

Here's their lede in the O'Citizen from yesterday:


OTTAWA — The MP leading the Conservative government’s defence in the robocalls scandal is himself under investigation by Elections Canada for alleged election-law violations related to voter-contact calls made by his campaign in 2008.


Elections Canada says in a court document it has reasonable grounds to believe offences were committed by Dean Del Mastro, who serves as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s parliamentary secretary, and by his campaign’s official agent.


In a surprise television appearance Wednesday evening, Del Mastro emotionally denied any wrongdoing. None of the allegations have been proved in court.


The allegations of Elections Act violations are listed in the court order compelling Frank Hall, owner of Holinshed Research Group, to produce emails, invoices and other documents related to work he did for Del Mastro.


An invoice submitted in a small-claims-court dispute brought by Holinshed against Del Mastro purports to show that Holinshed performed voter identification work as well as get-out-the-vote calls on election day for Del Mastro’s 2008 campaign. The company, once based in Ottawa, now no longer appears operational.


The production order, issued in response to an investigator’s sworn statement, says Del Mastro is suspected of incurring costs that breached his campaign’s spending limit by more than $17,000.


He is also suspected of paying $21,000 for election expenses with a cheque drawn on his personal bank account — which, if proven to be a personal contribution, would dramatically exceed the $2,100 contribution limit for candidates...




Now.

Here's the thing.

No allegations have been proven, and it would appear that there was some other stuff, stuff that very well may have been completely above board, that Holinshed Research did for Mr. Del Mastro after the 2008 campaign.

How do we know this?

Well, it turns out that Holinshed took Mr. Del Mastro to small claims court seeking remuneration for doing that 'stuff':


...In the small-claims lawsuit the company sued Del Mastro, alleging it had not been paid for providing a voter-tracking system called GeoVote — work it says the MP requested Holinshed perform after the campaign...




Interesting that, eh?

And just what is this 'GeoVote' and where did it come from.

Or, put another way, who helped pay for its development?

Bingo!

.