Maybe I'm misremembering but I thought municipal elections always opened later in the day.
I'm standing among a bunch of seniors and I thought age was supposed to bring wisdom LOL. They ain't bright when it comes to how city government works.
Looks like last time was 9am:
Quote:
All Election Day voting locations are open from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm.
I'm always amazed at how well the Federal Elections run (in / out in 10-20 min) vs how terribly run Municipal elections run (line stretching around the block).
Run a better process and maybe you get better turnout.
After reading so many complaints on social media about the lines being long due to this new provincial UCP requirement there was almost no wait at my voting location a few minutes ago.
By the time I walked out there was a fairly sizeable lineup forming though. I think I’m might’ve got lucky with my timing.
Went at 11:30, thought there wouldn't be a lineup at the Greek church. Lineup was surprisingly long, and this new sign-in process seemed abnormally long as well. No Greek food trucks either outside, was disappointed
My teenager is working the election today and he said it's been non-stop since they opened this morning. The amount of cars I see outside the school backs this up.
What's this new form you're all talking about? Voters have to fill it out? We did advance voting and never filled anything out. That said the reporting officer did take longer than expected but I just put that down to inexperience on his part (my wife was out much quicker)
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Location: In my office, at the Ministry of Awesome!
Exp:
Took me over 90 minutes.
The new process is such a waste of time and money (What did it cost to print thousands of duplicate legal size forms that have the same information as the voter list)?
Can't wait to hear Danielle Smith on the stump tomorrow demanding to know why Calgary and Edmonton still don't have their results, and "That's something we'll have to look into".
Anyone who is upset about long lines/waits, if you voted for Danielle Smith, you voted for this. You voted for this colossal waste of time and money that solves exactly ZERO problems.
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I just had to fill out name, address, DOB and sign it. It just takes a minute, but adding a minute to every person in line will be a lot over the course of a day.
Final time was 60 minutes. Took the person working 6 minutes to fill out the form and have me sign it and get the ballots together, which is such a waste of time considering the info is already on the voters sheet. Had 6 tables doing the forms with a 7th just coming in, dunno if that is fewer than normal or not. If you tack on a few minutes for each person to sign a form vs just crossing it out and referencing an ID or something, I can see why the time waiting can increase.
It's so hard to find info about CBE trustees, so I did some digging into the ward 5 / 10 candidates today. I have pretty progressive values, with a lot of weight put on student / children's rights and less on parent's rights, which is reflected here. Hope somebody else finds it useful.
I found a "parent's choice" group that sent out questionnaires to CBE candidates. For ward 5 / 10 I found the following CBE trustees all want to ban explicit books and out children who join LGBTQ+ groups to their parents:
Mandeep Manhas
Urooj Fouad
Wager Ahmed
None of the other candidates responded to the questions.
CBE Candidate Forum
The questions were softball and the answers weren't very specific.
Laura Hacks: A ward 3/4 incumbent who I liked, though I may be biased because she was running ads on Tumblr this morning
Cynthia Cordova: Has the most experience and it shows in how she speaks. Was a trustee in Ontario. Used some conservative coded language around keeping politics out of education and family values. Previously worked with Salvation Army. Otherwise didn't say anything I disliked
Amna Choudhry: Business background, first time working in education. Also didn't say anything wrong, but was clearing focused on the budget side of things, wanting increased funding and a more even funding distribution for schools in the NE
Mandeep Manhas & Urooj Fouad were both concerned parents with no relevant experience IMO
CJSW Ward 10
Urooj Fouad: Students first and parents rights. Her lack of experience shows in a lack of specifics in her talking points.
Wager Ahmed: Banning age inappropriate materials. Supporting parents right to have their children receive an education that remains in touch with their culture, such as including a multi purpose prayer room and 10min prayer time. Brought up social media and bullying as mental health issues. Looking for federal funding for parents getting billed for meal support,
Amna Choudhry: Focus on core education like what she had growing up, parents complaining about how things are no longer the same. Bring voice back for parents. Overflow issues in schools. Run regular meet and greets with community to share information with parents. Focusing on core education to reduce cost. Internal audit before appealing to province for more funding.
Cynthia Cordova: Student voices. Bring indigenous and student trustees in. Speaks a lot to her past experience. Hard to find fault in anything she says, though that may be due to practice and avoiding confrontational issues.
Mandeep Kaur MANHAS: Mostly skipped her. They did specifically ask about the new Alberta library policy and teaching LGBTQ+ material, so I wanted to hear what she said contrasted by the survey above. In favour of library bans and consent forms. Her mom was called when she tried to fake a consent signature. Brains don't fully develop until late 20s, so if we have an age restriction on alcohol and narcotics, we need an 18+ age restriction on this.
Grant McFarlane: Wants to move schools (physically) to reduce crowding. Build portable / temporary classrooms. Children aren't allowed to smoke or vote and are tied to parents responsibility so we should look at age appropriateness of material. <1% of population are looking at gender questions, so should our schools be allocating so much energy to addressing this? If so we need to talk to the health minister to get more resources. By reducing school size, students won't fall behind, so teachers won't have to support them. Wants to produce students that satisfy employers to make the province proud and reduce homelessness and dependency on food banks.
Savita Singh: School isn't just education, it's sports and culture too. A place children can express themselves. Students are curious and if they don't get the right answer they explore books and internet. Wants to make sure they are accessing the right information based on the opinions of parents and teachers.
Part 2:
I skipped most of this one, since everybody but Sukhdeep Singh Chahal had been interviewed before. Focused on the library / lgbtq+ question for them.
Waqar Ahmed: His favourite topic, championing parental rights. Schools should focus on academics while parents teach values. "Hands off our kids". Wants to balance parent involvement with inclusiveness.
Sukhdeep Singh Chahal: Advocating with provincial government for more schools where needed. Smarter use of resources. Collaborating with parents, community associations and city planners to build schools when new communitys are build. Regular town halls and information sessions. Believes parents are the most important partner in children's education and no parent wants anything bad for their children. Children don't know what's good or bad for them until they're in their 20s. Books with sensitive materials should be reviewed before added to libraries, and parents should know what books are carried. Supports audits and fair funding so alberta schools can catch up to national average.
Amna Choudhry: These are not new policies. When and why they changed are unknown. Need to get back to the core education. Goal shouldn't be to divide, but to create open communication. There are pros and cons, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be there.
Cynthia Cordova: Parental involvement and transparency is a pro for the new library policy, and does help protect younger students. Risks leaving students without support. Educators may avoid certain topics because of this. Equity concerns around vulnerable students, and legal / human rights considerations.
Sooooo should we expect you guys to elect a Conservative mayor with an overwhelming majority of the votes like y'all do with your provincial elections?!!
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