Friday, March 7, 2008

Voting problems

I'm just learning of some problems with the voting process. A number of students who have gone to vote were told by poll clerks they had already voted. If true, this would be a serious problem with the electoral process and something the CRO should be very concerned with.

I look forward to the Manitoban's coverage of this in their next issue.

1 comment:

Travis said...

Hey Dana. As one of the students who was informed that he had already voted, I can reassure you that I have no reason to believe that I have been disenfranchised. The polling clerks followed proper procedure, taking down my name and information, and using double envelopes to protect the process. As to the frequency of this happening, I voted at one of the more popular polling stations after 12:00 on the first day of voting, and when I added my information to the list, I could see that about 5 or 6 people before me (assuming that they hadn't started a new page) had had a similar problem at this station alone. I'll leave it up to anyone reading this to draw conclusions about how often this happened.

While I'm sure that everyone involved with the ballot counting process is of the highest integrity, it doesn't sit very well with me that somewhere, inside an envelope inside an envelope with my name on it are my clearly marked ballots. If someone so desired, he or she could easily determine how I voted in the election.

I am also concerned with what could potentially be causing this problem to occur. We're using an electronic system to track who has voted and who has not, and while this is light-years ahead of the previous magic-marker-on-my-student-card system, apparently there are still bugs to be worked out. And while I may not have been disenfranchised, it is distinctly possible that others have been due to similar problems.