Municipal election workers failed to follow procedures, audit finds

Issues arose concerning technology, staffing, city’s elections director says

Election workers didn’t follow approved processes during the 2017 municipal vote, although it did not impact the outcome of any of the election races, says a new report by the city’s auditor.

Among the issues that arose was a ballot box being left behind, preinitialled ballots being handed out and instances of lack of secrecy during the voting process, said the audit, which was discussed at a committee meeting Friday.

“A ballot box (was) left behind in a voting station after closing, still containing the ballots cast that day,” the report said. “Once they were notified by the school that hosted the voting station, Edmonton Elections immediately sent staff to retrieve the ballot box. It was determined that two instances of human error led to the issue.”

The report said the election workers in charge of the voting station did not follow required process, which would have included moving ballots to a transfer box and then handing them to other election workers at a specific site.

Iain MacLean, Edmonton’s director of elections and census, said the two recommendations coming out of the audit were about dealing with technology and the hiring and training of workers

“And it is critical that we take the auditor’s comments and look at our own process to make sure that we are improving every single time, to ensure that we are equipping our workers on election day, and utilizing new technology processes effectively,” he said Friday.

A number of polling stations also had difficulties with election workers not wanting to stay and assist with closing, which was an expectation of anyone working in voting stations, the report said.

In another instance, the auditor said election workers at 19 voting stations had pre-initialled ballots.

One polling station had about 200 ballots pre-initialled. At another station a ballot clerk continued to pre-initial ballots after having been instructed not to, the report said.

“The number of voting stations where this occurred is considered to be high in comparison to past elections,” the report said.

Clerks are supposed to confirm a person’s eligibility before putting their initial on the ballot. Preinitialled ballots were spoiled or cancelled, the report said.

MacLean said nearly 3,000 people were hired to work election day.

“So, you’re having a massive amount of people who are being hired, trained and being asked to do something that occurs once every four years,” he said.