Mieka West and her family experienced a three-hour wait to cast their votes in Calgary’s municipal election on Monday. West, who voted at the Ward 9 Colonel Walker School polling station in Inglewood, described a line of around a hundred people who had been waiting for a considerable time. This prolonged wait was an anomaly compared to her previous voting experiences, which typically took between five to 30 minutes.
Reports from voters across the city on Election Day highlighted long and sluggish lines, prompting questions about why this election appeared different from past ones. In Ward 11, Chance Devlin abandoned his attempt to vote due to the lengthy line. Despite the inconvenience, Devlin expressed regret, especially given the razor-thin margin in the mayoral election between Jeromy Farkas and Sonya Sharp.
University of Calgary political science professor Lisa Young also faced delays exceeding an hour when voting, attributing the slowdown to recent provincial government changes. The requirement to complete voter attestation forms for each voter, including name, address, and signature, resulted in delays due to new provincial rules mandating hand counting of ballots.
Young criticized these changes, emphasizing that they were implemented to bolster voter confidence, despite minimal instances of voter fraud. She suggested that additional polling stations or election workers could have alleviated the situation, albeit at a higher cost. Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams shifted blame to municipalities, emphasizing their responsibility for organizing elections and their awareness of the new regulations for over a year.
Furthermore, instances of voters encountering incorrect information at polling stations were reported. Some voters, like Brian Popp, faced challenges in obtaining separate school trustee ballots. Popp’s experience, where he was initially told the school trustee election wasn’t contested, highlighted the need for improved communication and ballot availability at polling stations.
The discrepancies observed in this election, including long wait times, paperwork backlogs, and misinformation at polling stations, have raised concerns among voters and officials alike. These issues have sparked discussions about the need for electoral process reassessment to ensure smoother and more efficient future elections.