Electronic voting machines could be a thing of the past if Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has her way.In an exclusive interview with The Western Standard Smith said Alberta’s experiment with electronic voting in the last general election didn’t go exactly as planned and in fact caused more delays and headaches than they were supposed to solve.“The problem with the tabulators is, I think that they were supposed to speed up counting, make it more efficient, give people more confidence that they could get the results faster. And that didn't happen on election night,” she explained..”If we can get it done more efficiently with just the regular old paper ballots then we should do that and to make sure people have confidence in the results.”Premier Danielle Smith.Voting machines were a particular point of controversy in the 2020 US election which former president Donald Trump and political commentators used to fuel conspiracy theories about stealing the election. The controversy ultimately cost Fox News host Tucker Carlson his job after the network was sued for USD$787.5 million by manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems.But Smith said that isn’t the issue here.“I think we’re not as complicated as the American elections. When you look at the American elections, they've got multiple different votes multiple down ballots — very complicated — which is why they use tablet tabulators. For us, it's a very simple vote. And with a simple vote, if we can get it done more efficiently with just the regular old paper ballots then we should do that and to make sure people have confidence in the results.”Tabulators were used in the spring election to gather the advance vote, which was marked on a paper ballot and then scanned. That precluded the need to package the ballots to Elections Alberta in Edmonton to be counted the ballots by hand.Likewise, voter-assist terminals allowed people with mobility issues to mark a physical ballot using on-screen or audio prompts, which were then inserted into a tabulator for counting. In either case, the paper ballots were retained for recounts by scrutineers.Unlike the US, the tabulators were never connected to a network and it was virtually impossible to tamper with them, according to the Elections Alberta website..“They're not working as planned. And I think because it's undermined people's confidence in the efficiency of elections Alberta to run the system we‘ve got to go back to basics.”Premier Danielle Smith.In 2023 up to a million people voted in advance, including about 300,000 who used the tabulators.The advantage was that it allowed anyone to vote from anywhere in the province. The disadvantage was that a mass of ballots weren’t released until after midnight which altered the trajectory of some races. Smith said the problem wasn’t accuracy, per se. But rather, that it proved to be an inefficient and complicated system and wound up taking longer to get the final results. That’s notwithstanding some feel uncomfortable marking electronic ballots and feel more confident if they’re counted by hand.Right now the future of the machines is before a committee and Smith said she hopes they’ll be consigned to the dust heap.“I mean look at the number of candidates on election night, who are giving victory speeches and then at the last minute, the tabulator vote came in at the 11th hour and it shifted the results. I mean, that's not fair to the people who would had worked really hard on those campaigns were thinking that they were on a path to victory,” she said. “And so they're not working as they were built, not working as planned. And I think because it's undermined people's confidence in the efficiency of elections Alberta to run the system we‘ve got to go back to basics.”
