Tomb

Graham Sucha, 21, belongs to a very desirable electoral demographic. City politicians badly want him and other young Calgarians to vote on October 15 — especially in light of the 2004 civic election, in which less than 20 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot.

Sucha wants to vote. If he lived in Edmonton, he’d be able to. However, because Calgary’s city council voted last November to disallow mail-in ballots, he’s blocked from the ballot box. The political science student is studying at Carleton in Ottawa, and there is no way for him to cast his ballot without flying back to Calgary — hardly a reasonable option for a student.

“I find it very important that you’re always involved in the electoral system,” says Sucha, who recently started a Facebook group called “I Can’t Vote in the Calgary Municipal Election.” “We’re always having problems with youth being apathetic about voting. And I’m pretty sure there are a lot of students who are basically in the same situation as me. They can’t vote in the next election.”

Bryndis Whitson isn’t a student, but like Sucha, the 28-year-old Calgarian can’t vote either. Whitson, who is working in Ottawa for 10 months has voted in every municipal, provincial and federal election since her 18th birthday. “I think it’s our duty to make sure that we vote,” she says. “And there are some of us trying to vote, but we actually can’t.”

Before the November 13, 2006 vote disallowing mail –in ballots, Barbara Clifford, the city’s returning officer, gave council a report outlining minor changes the province had recently made to the Local Authorities Election Act. Clifford recommended council keep mail-in ballots, but council decided against her recommendation. “They made the decision, and we don’t have (special ballots) this time,” she says.

The vote was close. Seven council members — including Mayor Dave Bronconnier — wanted to keep mail-in ballots; eight wanted to scrap them. “I think we overreacted,” says Ward 7 Ald. Druh Farrell, who voted against the mail-in ballots. “Certainly we were reeling from the Ward 10 scandal.”

During the 2004 election campaign, the city sent 1,266 mail-in ballots to a single post office box in Ward 10. After they were sent back to the city, Clifford noticed they all had similar handwriting. “It twigged Barb pretty easily,” says Ward 9 Ald. Joe Ceci, who voted to keep mail-in ballots. “She didn’t have to be Clouseau to figure that one out…. We caught the bad guys. So the system worked.”

Ceci says the mail-in ballots were an important part of civic democracy. “It enfranchised people who weren’t going to or couldn’t for some reason be present at the voting booth,” he says, adding that Canadians can vote in the federal election even if they’re overseas. (Alberta has mail-in ballots for provincial elections as well.)

Ward 12 Ald. Ric McIver, who voted against mail-in ballots, says they had to be trashed so trust in the electoral process could be restored. “It was council’s desire to give the public confidence that they were going to have a straight-up legitimate election,” he says. McIver acknowledges that the system worked, but says the Local Authorities Election Act needs to be revamped further to give the returning officer the power to deal with fraudulent votes before election day instead of waiting until afterwards.

Since July, McIver has repeatedly tried to pass a motion that would allow yellow “Support Our Troops” ribbons on all city vehicles. Ironically, Calgary soldiers on their tour of duty in Afghanistan won’t be able to vote because of council’s decision on special ballots, which McIver supported. “We took two steps forward and one step back,” he says. “It was still progress, but the one step back hurts people like the soldiers and students. That’s why we need to keep working at it and deal with the one step back.”

Farrell also says the city needs to revisit the mail-in ballots. “People travel so much more than they used to, that we can’t expect them to be in Calgary every election date,” she says.