Vote counting demoralizing due to time difference
I was a central poll supervisor on election day. A very long day.
We had to be at our polling station by 6 a.m. and accept voters by 7 a.m. and close by 7 p.m. I’m sure you are aware of the schedule, however the day is full of helping people vote whether they are challenged, language issues, new voters who needed to be registered, seniors confused or the big one: “you’re at the wrong polling station”.
The last one created some anger as the polling boundaries had been changed. Everyone gets a break except us. We fill in for those who go on breaks so we needed to know their job as well as ours. Enthusiasm was high as most all wanted to make their mark for a better future. All poll stations had to balance their ballots to the registration voters list. If it didn’t they couldn’t leave and we could not call in the count. Needless to say we stayed later. By the time all was said and done and delivered all our ballets to the main office in Duncan it was midnight!
We — our polling station — was fairly early as many, many more arrived after us! We had our heads down diligently working for 18 hours to what we thought was a very important role in democracy. Other polls had people walk off without finishing their poll station when they had learned the prime minister had already been chosen. All that work and enthusiasum crushed because they (back East) couldn’t honour the time difference, allow us to think our votes counted. Are we still using the old colonial way of Upper and Lower Canada rule? It’s time for a change!
David Darwin
Duncan