The importance off air, honest elections

DEAR EDITOR:

There is a civic election coming up on Oct. 15 and some of you will be asked by a candidate to volunteer to scrutineer at the advance polls and on election day.

I have been informed that the successful follow through of this volunteer obligation has been low. I am not saying this as a criticism as I know how hard it is unless you understand exactly what you are expected or allowed to do and most candidates do not know enough to help you.

When I undertook to oversee the election in 2018, I had a helper Hannah Hyland; together we undertook the onerous task of overseeing the election; gathering scrutineers; setting schedules and ensuring someone was always there to oversee the election.

However as there was only the two of us it became a full-time job with months of preparation negotiating with city staff followed by enrolling and organizing volunteers.

I don’t think to this day that the public understands or appreciates the value of this accomplishment.

I had hoped that some citizens’ group would step forward and agree to oversee subsequent civic elections. I would have been fully prepared to train and develop their skills to ensure that the citizens who take their vote seriously and all candidates running in the election could be ensured a fair election.

However this has not happened. Apparently one thing that has come out of the 2018 election is that now candidates are expected to have a scrutineer.

But quite frankly, if the scrutineers don’t know their duties it is pretty pointless.

When I organized the scrutineer volunteer group in 2018, it was with the permission of then CAO Peter Weeber. I worked with city staff to set rules on use and scrutiny of the counting machines and the votes. No volunteer scrutineer in my group was allowed to favour any candidate. The goal was to enable an honest unbiased election that would ensure the vote of the electorate and the rights of the candidate were fully protected.

Nevertheless some candidates were wary of this novel approach and chose to have scrutineers outside of this system and did so.

I am fully satisfied that the 2018 election was a fair and honest election that protected the rights of both the voter and the candidate.

We are very lucky in this country. We don’t live in a tin pot dictatorship and we have a voice in government each election. But citizens also have a duty: to become informed; to vote; to ensure that they do their part to ensure we have a healthy working democracy.

Let me be very clear: I do not say previous elections were dishonest. I do say that to maintain a healthy democracy the electorate must remain vigilant. If we do not care for democracy; democracy will not care of us.

Elvena Slump Penticton