The province of Alberta has been holding general elections every three or four years for almost 120 years now. One would think we would have a good routine in place by now..One would be wrong. .With what was proving to be a close election battle with high stakes, Albertans were glued to their TV sets, radios and computers to see how the votes panned out. .Even when more than an hour and-a-half had passed since the polls closed, not even 10% of the votes had been counted. Some constituencies hadn't even registered a single vote yet. The results came pouring in and the election was called for the the UCP at nearly 11 pm on Monday night. What on earth took so long, though? .Elections Alberta responded and said some new processes implemented had caused the delays and they'd be examining those processes before the next election. .How complicated does it have to be? .I used one of the advance polls in a rural constituencies when I placed my vote. The expanded range for advance polling is a good electoral development. It spreads out the task for election workers and returning officers. It offers more windows for busy citizens to find time to get out and mark their ballot and it reduces the lineups on the formal election day. .When I cast my ballot, it was taken to a tabulating machine and scanned in front of me. These tabulators were to speed up the counting process and while I am nervous with the prospect of electronic voting, the paper ballots were to be kept for 90 days after the election. They could be recounted by hand and audited after the election if need be. .With more than 700,000 Albertans taking the opportunity of the advance polls, we expected a flood of results within 15 minutes of polls closing. The data was digitized and even a cheap computer can do calculations into the millions in a matter of seconds. Our expectations were misplaced. .Not only did the tabulators not speed up the count, the processes attached to them actually slowed it down. What was the point in investing in these things? .As nervous citizens awaited results, conspiracy theories began spreading on social media. Trust is low in with the government at the best of times and it didn't take long for some people to start spreading the word that the fix was in. .I don't think there was any electoral impropriety. I think this is just another good old fashioned case of bureaucrats spending a fortune to make a simple process more complicated. .Our primitive old system of paper ballots, counted by hand, is actually quite secure and can be done reasonably quickly. Even back in the 1990s we would see election results being posted within half an-hour of the close of polls. Everything could be witnessed and verified by scrutineers and it was terribly difficult to rig the results. The system doesn't need to change. .There has been some push to move toward electronic voting. In seeing just how badly bureaucrats can screw up simple tabulators, it's clear we don't need to move deeper into electronic means of voting. It's easy to vote, the results are reliable and they are determined quickly. .The entire foundation of our democracy is based on trust in the integrity of the electoral system. If that trust is lost, we no longer have functional democracy. The risk in meddling with the system outweighs any possible benefits. .If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The province of Alberta has been holding general elections every three or four years for almost 120 years now. One would think we would have a good routine in place by now..One would be wrong. .With what was proving to be a close election battle with high stakes, Albertans were glued to their TV sets, radios and computers to see how the votes panned out. .Even when more than an hour and-a-half had passed since the polls closed, not even 10% of the votes had been counted. Some constituencies hadn't even registered a single vote yet. The results came pouring in and the election was called for the the UCP at nearly 11 pm on Monday night. What on earth took so long, though? .Elections Alberta responded and said some new processes implemented had caused the delays and they'd be examining those processes before the next election. .How complicated does it have to be? .I used one of the advance polls in a rural constituencies when I placed my vote. The expanded range for advance polling is a good electoral development. It spreads out the task for election workers and returning officers. It offers more windows for busy citizens to find time to get out and mark their ballot and it reduces the lineups on the formal election day. .When I cast my ballot, it was taken to a tabulating machine and scanned in front of me. These tabulators were to speed up the counting process and while I am nervous with the prospect of electronic voting, the paper ballots were to be kept for 90 days after the election. They could be recounted by hand and audited after the election if need be. .With more than 700,000 Albertans taking the opportunity of the advance polls, we expected a flood of results within 15 minutes of polls closing. The data was digitized and even a cheap computer can do calculations into the millions in a matter of seconds. Our expectations were misplaced. .Not only did the tabulators not speed up the count, the processes attached to them actually slowed it down. What was the point in investing in these things? .As nervous citizens awaited results, conspiracy theories began spreading on social media. Trust is low in with the government at the best of times and it didn't take long for some people to start spreading the word that the fix was in. .I don't think there was any electoral impropriety. I think this is just another good old fashioned case of bureaucrats spending a fortune to make a simple process more complicated. .Our primitive old system of paper ballots, counted by hand, is actually quite secure and can be done reasonably quickly. Even back in the 1990s we would see election results being posted within half an-hour of the close of polls. Everything could be witnessed and verified by scrutineers and it was terribly difficult to rig the results. The system doesn't need to change. .There has been some push to move toward electronic voting. In seeing just how badly bureaucrats can screw up simple tabulators, it's clear we don't need to move deeper into electronic means of voting. It's easy to vote, the results are reliable and they are determined quickly. .The entire foundation of our democracy is based on trust in the integrity of the electoral system. If that trust is lost, we no longer have functional democracy. The risk in meddling with the system outweighs any possible benefits. .If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
