# Smart Richmond data monitor compliance review

Reviewed 2026-09-06 against Elections BC guidance for third-party sponsors under the **Local Elections Campaign Financing Act (LECFA)**.

## Operating scope

The monitor publishes public election-authority records, source links, database fields and a transparent method. It does not tell a reader who to vote for, oppose a candidate, accept candidate payment, coordinate with a campaign, buy election advertising, or present a candidate image as an advertisement. Where a candidate has no historical municipal result to scale (every 2026 Mayor candidate; new Councillor/Trustee candidates), projected votes and probabilities remain blank rather than invented. Where a historical result exists (returning Councillor/Trustee candidates), the page publishes a labelled flat-share arithmetic scenario against an estimated 2026 turnout range, explicitly framed as not a poll and not a forecast, with its full method disclosed on the page.

The current candidate universe is copied from the City of Richmond's official candidate list. Candidate names are displayed as the formal names returned by that source. The City says candidate profiles are candidate-submitted; Smart Richmond does not rewrite them into endorsements.

## Registration assessment

Elections BC's guide describes third-party advertising as public communication that directly or indirectly promotes or opposes a candidate during the pre-campaign or campaign period. It also identifies unpaid internet messages and individual non-commercial internet communications as exceptions in the circumstances described by the guide. This project is designed to remain a source-backed informational database within those exceptions: it has no paid placement and no campaign coordination. If the site later buys placement, boosts a post, accepts sponsorship, adds endorsement language, or uses directed candidate advertising, stop publication and obtain Electoral Finance guidance before proceeding; registration and authorization wording may then be required.

## Controls implemented

- Official source URL and fetch date are stored with each current-candidate snapshot.
- Historical votes are linked to City declarations; missing provincial/federal rows are marked `source_registered_pending_row_import`.
- Missing signals are never converted to zero, and estimates are withheld when validation fails.
- The 2026 turnout-scenario model and any per-candidate flat-share vote scenario derived from it are labelled as a reasoned arithmetic scenario, not a poll or a forecast, with the eligible-elector trend, turnout assumptions and source figures disclosed in full on the page and in `data/history.json`.
- Ethnicity is never inferred from names, photos, language or vote totals; demographics require a Statistics Canada geography join.
- No campaign contribution, sponsor, placement, or candidate payment is accepted by the workflow.
- The public page states that it does not recommend, oppose, endorse or coordinate with candidates.

## Official references

- [Elections BC: Local advertising sponsors](https://elections.bc.ca/local-elections/local-advertising-sponsors/)
- [Elections BC: Guide for local elections third-party sponsors](https://elections.bc.ca/docs/lecfa/guide-for-local-elections-third-party-sponsors-in-bc.pdf)
- [Elections BC: Local forms](https://elections.bc.ca/local-elections/local-forms/)
- [City of Richmond: 2026 candidate list](https://www.richmond.ca/city-hall/elections/candidateslist.htm?PageMode=HTML)

This is an operational review, not legal advice. Electoral Finance should be consulted before any paid distribution or candidate-directed communication.