Julie McLaughlin

The Alberta Liberal party has requested that Alberta’s Auditor General investigate “widespread” reports of poor organization and irregularities on the part of Elections Alberta during the last provincial election.

Liberal leader Kevin Taft says a number of scrutineers reported that as many as half the voters who showed up to polling stations on March 3 weren’t on the voters list despite their having lived in the same riding for decades, with hundreds of voters leaving the polling stations without casting a vote. He alleges there were a number of other violations on election day, including the posting of Conservative candidate signs outside polling stations. As well, says Taft, thousands of voters did not receive voting cards from Elections Alberta and were sent to the wrong polling stations.

“Many scrutineers have called it the worst run election they ever witnessed,” says Taft. “The voters lists were incomplete, there were shortages of material at the polling stations, the polling clerks and staff were poorly trained, and many seemed to have not known the rules and were inconsistent in the application of the rules.”

According to Lori McKee-Jeske, deputy chief electoral officer for Elections Alberta, many voters often mistake provincial polling stations with federal ones. She says Elections Alberta addressed the issue prior to the election by distributing over one million voter cards, placing inserts in newspapers, running a call centre and a website. “Nobody should be turned away from the polls, unless they’re non-eligible or they’re at the wrong location,” says Jeske.

The Elections Alberta website was disabled from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on election day, leaving many voters unable to find the polling station in their riding. According to Jeske, the website experienced what she calls a “slowdown” due to the volume of traffic early in the day, but it was quickly corrected and the site performed extremely well thereafter. She added that during the peak period from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the website recorded over 100,000 hits without any problems. She points to election research conducted by an independent marketing group that suggests 95 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the service they received.

“Last October, there were municipal elections across Alberta and we didn’t have these problems,” says Taft. “Something specifically went off the rails with the provincial elections. It may be Elections Alberta’s fault, it may be the Stelmach government’s fault, that’s what we need the auditor general to help us sort out.” Taft also wants Dunn to look into the appropriateness of appointing partisan returning officers. More than half the returning officers had known ties to the Conservative party.

Prior to the last election, the chief electoral officer had recommended that returning officers be chosen and trained on a merit-based competitive process by Elections Alberta. It was one of 99 recommendations he made in 2006 regarding changes to Alberta’s electoral system that have yet to be addressed by the provincial government. While in Calgary for his annual Stampede breakfast, the premier told reporters he would wait for a response from the auditor general’s office regarding the Liberal request, adding, “all those positions report to the legislative assembly, not to the premier.”

Jeske could not say whether the appointments came directly from the premier, but did confirm the appointments do originate from the Conservative party association. Returning officers, she added, are expected to behave in a non-partisan fashion during the time they are appointed to the post. “We did not get any indication that any of our returning officers had behaved in a partisan way,” says Jeske. “But certainly in terms of previous connections prior to the time of the elections, there could have been political connections.”

While Taft says the irregularities were widespread across the province, he carries no illusions that they cost him the election, which the Conservatives won by a landslide. The real issue, he says, is that fair and proper conduct during elections is the foundation of a democracy, and it is crucial for the public’s confidence in the electoral system that it not degenerate. “This is not just about local officials who weren’t competent, this is about something a lot bigger than that,” says Taft. “At some point, people are going to step forward and demand their democratic rights be respected.”

While some in the media have suggested that Taft should simply exit quietly after a disastrous provincial election, the issue does warrant a closer look says U of C political scientist Keith Archer. “For people to suggest that this is a partisan issue strikes me as a little short-sighted,” he says. “In newly democratized countries it’s not surprising to see people wait in line for hours, but in an advanced society that becomes a real disincentive to participate.”

Living in a province where one party has won every election for the past 37 years is already a disincentive for people to vote and the addition of administrative gaffes creates a perfect storm for low voter participation, says Archer. “You have to start wondering whether that becomes dysfunctional for our democracy if people increasingly become disengaged from the electoral process.”