Dear Editor,
I wholeheartedly agree with the editorial about eliminating voting machines in any future elections throughout Alberta. 'Hand-counting to add $38,000 to next civic election: Town' was a great follow-up story in the Oct.9 paper.
As usual, Premier Danielle Smith has given no credible reason, based on actual data, for plowing ahead with Bill 20… beyond some vague anecdotal references to “the people of Alberta.” And why does she feel the need to mandate municipalities to collect gender information in their voter lists?
I worked for the 2023 provincial election in Okotoks as did my wife, but at a voting place in DeWinton. In both cases, urban and rural, we were provided with extensive training by committed and professional people. During the election itself, we witnessed checks and balances and oversight (including scrutineer volunteers from the UCP and NDP) thanks to processes that are always being improved between elections.
Expanding – not eliminating – voting machines and all their ancillary benefits was the consensus by Elections Alberta staff based on real world experience. But hey, what do they know, right? Along with 85 per cent of Alberta Municipalities leaders who recently voted ‘no’ to this proposal.
Counting votes manually when you’re already tired after a long day, for yet more hours and hours, will always be prone to human error and delays. So why not eliminate that possibility altogether — and save valuable taxpayer funds too?
If Premier Smith, and for that matter Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, really want to better safeguard our elections and democracy, to ensure that every vote is represented in the Legislature and House of Commons, they should instead convene a Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform with the end goal being proportional representation.
The former did not include any mention of it in her recent Alberta Bill of Rights amendments and the latter promised it back in 2015 but subsequently reneged.
These micro and macro issues are essential to keep moving us forward, not backward, at every level of government. History teaches us how critical it is to have fair and equal representation and to hold those in power accountable for their actions.
After all, how are we going to entice young people to vote if all they see are politicians breaking promises, based on their own personal biases or those from extremist elements in their parties, resulting in their own personal benefit?
Gordon Petersen
Okotoks
