Observations and thoughts from spending nine hours at a polling station as a first-time scrutineer:
• Nancy and her eight team members are professional, patient and courteous. A nod to Elections Alberta for their training.
• Final preparations include displaying empty ballot boxes. After my inspection, the boxes are taped and secured.
• Lineups appear during the two-hour dinner time rush, in part from verifying the eligibility of voters who didn’t bring their confirmation or who were not registered. The diligence and expertise of the staff is evident as they efficiently register each voter.
• Voters exude a palpable excitement and a sense of democratic duty, with a dose of nonchalance.
• Introduction to Democracy 101: One father assists his young daughter in depositing his ballot; his wife does likewise with their younger daughter.
• One glitch: voters who reside in the neighbourhood have to travel 10 to 15 minutes to a different polling station.
• Reconciling number of votes cast/number of electors is completed before the ballot boxes are open for the unofficial vote count.
Ronald Kustra, St. Albert
