Be Advised - Big Line-ups at the Polls

So much for apathy. The City of Guelph is reporting that some polling stations throughout the city are experiencing - wait for it! - a higher than expected voter turnout. Translation: long lines. If, like me, you left voting till today, then you, like me, might encounter a bit of a wait when you get to the polling station. Another part of the problem is technical (surprise.) as updates to voter lists have been slow to sync up between the main database and computers at polling stations. But on the upside, apparently a lot of us decided to get off our butts and vote!

You Know What? Maybe You Shouldn't Vote.

As I was working at the Best Western polling station yesterday, somebody downtown was reading my Echo column and they decided to send me a comment via e-mail, and no, it wasn't a death threat or somebody telling me I shouldn't be writing a political blog. 

Long story short, he begged to differ from my assertion in the column that people who are able to vote, really should vote and that maybe they should no what it's like to have to fight to get the right to vote by writing an essay in order to get the vote back if you miss three elections in a row at any level. I'm not sure I was advocating a "Rock the Vote" style, vote or else campaign that encourages everyone to exercise their franchise even if they aren't really passionate about it, but I secede that it could be read that way.

"[L]ike you I always vote," my e-mail writer wrote, "I don't agree that we need to find ways to make more people vote. No good can come from the uninformed, unintellgent, and/or apathetic casting ballots.

Immediately before I read your column today I overheard the following (abbreviated) exchange between the staff.

Cook: Steve Jobs died.

Bartender: Who is Steve Jobs?

Cook: He was an Apple guy, he saved the music industry. I knew he was going to die because there's two kinds of cancer: the kind that makes you bald but you live, and the kind that makes you skinny but you die. He got skinny, so he died, like Jack Layton.

 "Do you really want people like that voting? What are the chances they have a clue what they are voting for?"

I agree, I certainly hope these people didn't vote. But there are a lot of people out there who should vote but don't. They know the issues, they're informed, they're passionate, but for whatever reason, there's a disconnect between that and getting to the polling place.

People who don't vote can be separated into five categories: there are people who are intelligent and engaged, but don't vote as a statement; there are people who are intelligent and engaged but feel that their vote doesn't matter; their are people who are intelligent and somewhat engaged, but perhaps feel not informed enough to vote; there are intelligent people that don't engage; and their unintelligent people who enjoy their ignorance and/or feel that society doesn't get them. People in those first four categories should be voting, that last category should not.

How we might fix that gap, I don't know. But working for the election gives you some pretty interesting insight into the system. Here's what came from my 12 hours manning the polls yesterday:

1) Mail's screwing up the process. There were so many young people that came in to vote, but didn't have proof of address because they don't have bills sent to their house. Or bank statements. Or magazine subscriptions. Or any mail really. Some were referred to a nearby printer, and one girl tried to show an electronic document on her laptop as proof, which sadly couldn't be accepted as proof of address. Which leads into the next point.

2) One of the many students working the Best Western poll remarked that the University spends so much time encouraging people to get out to vote, and not enough time giving them the info they need in order to vote. Like what kind of ID you need, or where you can get that info. While it is up to the individual to take responsibility to find the information they need, your student government should be able to help point you in the right direction.

3) People need to realize that voting isn't like going to McDonalds to get a Big Mac: you can't go to any location and get the same service. There were a couple of people who expected that they'd be able to just go to the polling station of their choice and submit their vote. Sorry, you can't do that. These things are carefully organized for a reason, and that reason is to make sure that you can't just walk into a polling station, say that you'd like to vote at this poll because it's closer to your work or home, when you're really doing a voting tour of Guelph. Which reminds me...

4) Use your advanced polls. A kid cam in rather irate that he wanted to vote at the Best Western because he had a busy day on campus and couldn't leave for an appropriate amount of time to vote at his polling place. What this guy should have realized is that there was advanced voting for 10 days, at several locations around the city, including the University Centre at the University of Guelph. You mean you didn't have two minutes in a week a half to vote just one floor down from where you get your Starbucks?

And yes, voter turnout was down from the last election, below 50 per cent of the total vote down, but I don't think making the process easier is the answer. Like the man said, Democracy is advanced citizenship, you have to want it before you're able to get it. And the point is more people should want it.

Schirk Says Voting is Easy... And Cool

To complete this rather busy political day, I'm posting this press release I got from the Greg Schirk campaign encouraging everyone to get out and vote. I like the message, because as much as our elections sometimes sink to the depths of partisanship, which may be a nice name to explain a wide variety of civil discourse, both positive and negative, the most important thing of all is get out and vote. It's where your voice really matters after all.

--PRESS RELEASE--

Greg Schirk, Guelph’s Progressive Conservative candidate, voted today at the advance poll set up by Elections Ontario in City Hall. He found the process quick and easy, and encourages all eligible voters in Guelph to exercise their democratic right and cast their ballot at an advance poll today or tomorrow, or on October 6th.

Greg wants to remind voters that “the Ontario provincial government – NOT the Federal government or the government of the City of Guelph -- is responsible for two really important areas that affect everyone and their future - health care and education. If you have an opinion about what you want heath care and education to be in Ontario, please take a few minutes to understand the platform of each political party, then vote for the one that best reflects your views.”

Greg also wants people to recognize that “the right to vote is the cornerstone of democracy. It is a fundamental democratic right that people in many countries do not have and are fighting for right now. We have it. We shouldn’t take it for granted.” Furthermore, “contrary to how many people feel, every vote really does count. It’s our way of making it clear to politicians the direction we want our governments to take over the next few years. The more votes, the clearer that message.”

The View From the Polling Station

If you've never worked at a polling station on election day, it's an experience well worth having. Seeing the mechanics of democracy, in action, from behind the scenes is amazing. And though it might sound boring to sit there all day and administer paper ballots and direct people to where they should be, the time actually goes by pretty quick.

Yesterday, I was an Information Officer at St. Francis of Assisi. I welcomed people that walked though the front doors of the school, directed them down the hall to the gym and checked to make sure that they had the proper ID with them to ensure the smooth processing of voters. You'd be surprised to learn how many people can't follow the rather simple instructions on voting procedure and what ID they need to vote. Several people brought in the brochure that outlined the types of ID they needed and what that ID needed to say, and they still didn't have the correct information. (Usually, they were forgetting something with their address on it.) 

And don't even get me started on how many people either forgot their Voter Information Card, said they misplaced it, and even admitted to throwing it out. 

The big news was the robocalls telling voters that their polling place was changed, too busy, or closed early. After the first couple of people told me about the robocalls I phoned it in to Elections Canada HQ in Guelph, and they told me that they had heard several other complaints as well. What happened with the crank calls has been well-covered by now (with the exception of who's behind them). One industrious woman gave me the phone number of the caller thanks to the miracle of called ID. I tried ringing the number, with its Montreal area code, and got an inaudible name before being directed to the number's already full voice mail box. Whoever is behind it, the robocalls were dirty pool, and considering the attempted (and occasional successful) disruption of democracy, I would go so far as to call it treasonous. Yes, these people are enemies of democracy, and should be treated as such.

Otherwise, it was a pretty smooth day at the polls. I met and talked to a lot of nice people. Some of them were veteran voters, some of them were there for the first time ever. There was no political sniping, no negativity, no shouting or hair pulling, just pleasant people exercising their constitutional right to choose the government. It's just too bad that more people still don't avail themselves of the opportunity.

They Came for the Ballot Box!

The situation seems more or less chilled out regarding the "Special Ballot" and the "Incident" that took place in the University Centre on Wednesday. No one was arrested, all votes will be counted, and all parties seem to agree that the situation had its faults even amidst the positives (ie: Students voting en masse). Seriously, you can't even get 700 undergrads out for the AGM of their own student government.

Into this situation sauntered the elusive Michael Sona. By all accounts, he made a move as if to reach for the ballot box and take it while arguing with on site Elections Canada workers about the validity of the poll. I would say this speaks to Sona's character, but I don't know what that is. There was some yelling, some accusations, undoubtedly some pouting, blame games about partisan bric-à-brac strewn about the U.C. and candidate surrogates outside ready to accost the undecided. A pretty grim picture of something that according to most accounts didn't happen. Let's play a round of Mythbusters. 

First, was there partisan material for the Liberals, NDP and the Green Party near or round the area where the Special Ballot was being held? Sort of. Many witnesses have noted that partisan material, including Liberal pamphlets, were found within uncomfortable proximity to the polling station, but when they were pointed out to the Elections Canada people in attendance, the material was quickly removed. As to campaigners handing out that material to people outside the U.C., witnesses again say that the closest were a pair of Liberals campaigning near the Library, several yards away from the U.C.

How can they have an advanced poll at the U of G and no one from Elections Canada knows about? Simple, it wasn't an advanced poll. It was a Special Ballot. All the ballots cast were on route to Ottawa where they would be sorted per riding, because not all the students voting at the U.C. were voting for the riding of Guelph. Think of it as a mass mail-in ballot. As mentioned by Elections Canada on Friday, the rules governing these Special Ballots can be fast and loose, but they are legitimate. And its worth pointing out that this is the third time that the University of Guelph has held such a Special Ballot for its students. What made this time an outrage? (You'll have to ask Michael Sona. If you can get him on the phone.)

Can Michael Sona get in trouble for making a grab for the ballot box? Possibly. From Part 11 of the Canadian Elections Act: "No person shall, inside or outside Canada, [...] (b) wilfully interfere with, or attempt to interfere with, an elector when marking a ballot or special ballot, or otherwise attempt to obtain any information as to the candidate for whom any elector is about to vote or has voted" and "(g) wilfully prevent or endeavour to prevent an elector from voting at an election." If you think that sounds pretty bad, it is. But as noted by the Mercury, the police were not called. Nothing was seized and nobody was arrested.

How does this make the Burke campaign look? Already insular beyond the point of rational thought, the Burke campaign, and by proxy the Conservative Party of Canada, looks even more secretive and Draconian, two things that as every day goes by, they don't need any more help in appearing to be. And just to review, Burke couldn't make it to campus for a debate, but cat's paw can crash the Special Ballot and make a fuss about improper voting. Frankly, if the student vote was so important to Burke, he should have cancelled his "personal booking" and come to campus to face his fellow candidates and the audience.

In the end though, Elections Canada made a wise decision (even the Conservative head office thought so) in allowing the ballots be counted. The cost, however, is that no one else across Canada will be allowed to hold or participate in such events. That's shame, and while the rules that govern elections must be inscrutable and above reproach, the end result of this incident is that Conservatives are a) afraid of students actually coming through in this election, and b) they'll do anything to make sure that their odds of winning a majority aren't contravened by little things like democracy.

For the students in the U.C. on Wednesday, there's two things they'll take away from this incident: 1) The Conservatives are afraid of their vote, and 2) The Tories seem truly not to care about winning their vote, and will outright disenfranchise them if they can. Hopefully the former won't cancel out the latter, and students are more compelled now than ever to vote. Whatever, and wherever that may be.

Get Your Early Votes in Now

I'm a little behind on this, but this week, the advanced polls are open for the municipal election. See below for the times and locations. And please vote. It's more than your right, it's your responsibility. Remember: if you don't vote, you really can't complain.

Tuesday, October 12, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., City Hall, 1 Carden St.

Wednesday, October 13, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., City Hall, 1 Carden St.

Thursday, October 14, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., City Hall, 1 Carden St.

Saturday, October 16, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the following locations:

• Ward 1: Guelph City Hall, 1 Carden Street
• Ward 2: Evergreen Seniors Community Centre, 683 Woolwich Street
• Ward 3: Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic High school, 54 Westmount Road
• Ward 4: West End Community Centre, 21 Imperial Road South
• Ward 5: John McCrae Public School, 189 Water Street
• Ward 6: Arkell Road Bible Chapel, 39 Arkell Road