Municipal Politics

[ADob]

We had 4 tables and 4 lines (Wîhkwêntôwin, Holy Child school). It went pretty fast, although a couple hours later, when the after-work crowd hit, my partner said only 3 of the 4 tables were staffed, which seemed like an odd choice for the busiest time. But no, no single snake.

 

[thommyjo]

Why is Calgary done counting and yet we have 20% of polls reporting?

Sounded crazy tight down there:

“With 380 of 380 polls reporting, Farkas has 91,065 votes — a 585 vote difference from the runner up Sonya Sharp with 90,480 votes as of Tuesday morning, according to Elections Calgary.“

 

[kcantor]

^^^
I think snake lines diverging at the end are the most efficient option. It’s kind of the reverse of zipper merging in traffic and is what’s typically employed in high volume line environments (ie security clearance at airports, customs clearance at airports for people and at land crossings for cars etc.).

 

[policyenthusiast]

long lines not indicative of voter engagement (30% vs 37% last election), but onerous changes to the process introduced by UCP gov. Their paranoia about voting machines and insisting on hand counting has slowed reporting to a snails pace. Everything they touch is made worse by their incompetence.

Can confirm. I was in line for almost 2 hours, and in that time I saw probably a dozen people leave without voting because of the catastrophic experiment in bureaucratic incompetence we have been blessed with.

 

[Gronk!]

It's like the UCP doesn't want to allow anyone to vote. I'm unable to think of any other reason why they enforce these rules that hearken back to the Stone Age.

 

[Airboy]

Voter turnout for St Albert was absurdly low. Even though there were long lines. Hell I pre Registered and still had to fill out forms and have extra ID. Only good thing was since my SO was in a wheel chair we were given a priority in line. But still took a 1/2 hour for the whole process. From entering the building to exiting. I can see why it was so low, People were tired. I heard Medicine Hat was handing out the forms and clip boards. I asked our pole worker about it and he said they were told they have to witness you filling out the form.

 

[CplKlinger]

Can confirm. I was in line for almost 2 hours, and in that time I saw probably a dozen people leave without voting because of the catastrophic experiment in bureaucratic incompetence we have been blessed with.

And we're on the hook for an even larger bill this election to boot :')

 

[Airboy]

Most People I talked with while waiting were pissed that it was different. Problem was they were blaming the City and Elections Canada.

 

[TAS]

Why is Calgary done counting and yet we have 20% of polls reporting?

Sounded crazy tight down there:

“With 380 of 380 polls reporting, Farkas has 91,065 votes — a 585 vote difference from the runner up Sonya Sharp with 90,480 votes as of Tuesday morning, according to Elections Calgary.“

Calgary decided prior to election day that they would prioritize the mayor's count (which was a good decision).
The ward races are all only partially done like ours - about 20% of polls reporting.

 

[northlands]

Days like yesterday remind me why downtown living can be pretty sweet. Yesterday at 4 PM I walked to my voting station, voted, then bought a pack of joints and grabbed a few things for dinner and walked home. Took maybe 35 mins max.

 

[kcantor]

Days like yesterday remind me why downtown living can be pretty sweet. Yesterday at 4 PM I walked to my voting station, voted, then bought a pack of joints and grabbed a few things for dinner and walked home. Took maybe 35 mins max.

Well for the record, I worked from home in the morning, walked to the Little Brick for a 2:00 research/interview session and a cappuccino, walked to Riverdale School to vote (at least part of the school was being used for something ), and then walked home. I'd say that more than 75% of the people that were there walked (there were way more people than there were cars on the street).

 

[David A]

^^^
I think snake lines diverging at the end are the most efficient option. It’s kind of the reverse of zipper merging in traffic and is what’s typically employed in high volume line environments (ie security clearance at airports, customs clearance at airports for people and at land crossings for cars etc.).

Yes, that would have been a good idea. I ended up switching lines because the one I was in was moving slowly, but it still took around 20 minutes and I was there in the mid morning which is not a busy time.

IMO the polls probably should have also opened an hour earlier. Another alternative would be to have a separate line(s) for those who would take time more to process such a new voters, people who moved since the last election ... However, the colour coded ballots were a good idea.

 

[David A]

Calgary decided prior to election day that they would prioritize the mayor's count (which was a good decision).
The ward races are all only partially done like ours - about 20% of polls reporting.

Well, their Mayoral race was expected to be extremely close probably closer than ours, so that decision makes sense.

 

[David A]

Voter turnout for St Albert was absurdly low. Even though there were long lines. Hell I pre Registered and still had to fill out forms and have extra ID. Only good thing was since my SO was in a wheel chair we were given a priority in line. But still took a 1/2 hour for the whole process. From entering the building to exiting. I can see why it was so low, People were tired. I heard Medicine Hat was handing out the forms and clip boards. I asked our pole worker about it and he said they were told they have to witness you filling out the form.

Maybe it was just the staff where I was at, but the initial staff seemed very indifferent about the forms being filled out. I had expected they would check it to make sure there were no obvious errors, but they didn't and seemed to be leave that for the second line, which probably made that even line slower.

 

[constance_chlore]

I love how, for all the talk about a major anti-incumbent backlash, literally all but one incumbent is still in the lead. Goes to show at least one of two things: (1) the people who are complaining loudest are not remotely representative of those who show up to vote; or (2) people are mostly mad about other people's councillors, not their own. In any case, guess people aren't really that upset about infill and bike lanes!