Calgary Herald

Returning officer says high voter turnout needed in Olympic 2026 vote to provide clear mandate

- ZACH LAING zlaing@postmedia.com On Twitter: @zjlaing

An intense time crunch and a smaller budget forced Calgary returning officer and city clerk Laura Kennedy’s hand when it came to setting up polling stations for the Nov. 13 Olympic plebiscite.

“The vote of the electors is unique,” she said. “Typically, we would have a good year or so before a vote to sit down and talk about voting options with various groups — the vote of the electors was rapidly done, rapidly pulled together.”

On vote day, the city will set up 160 voting stations across all wards, but exclude post-secondary institutio­ns.

The University of Calgary and Mount Royal University will only get polling stations for the advance vote on Nov. 6 and 7.

Other schools were rejected completely after looking at previous polling results that showed a much lower turnout.

“Because I have a limited budget to run a city-wide vote … I had to make some decisions — it came down to who had the higher voter turnout,” she said.

The budget for the Olympic plebiscite is $2 million, while typical elections have a budget of more than $4 million, Kennedy said.

“Being able to vote at the university is just another way to vote. There are other voting options.”

Kennedy said there are 14 advance-polling stations, while others can use mail-in ballots.

Coun. Jyoti Gondek echoed the short time frame the city faced, adding there is a desire to make changes in the next municipal election.

“We are just so crunched for time to deliver on (the plebiscite), and we have limitation­s with the Local Authoritie­s Election Act that we can’t change quickly,” said Gondek.

“The more wholesome changes (Kennedy ’s) looking to bring about in the 2021 election couldn’t be accommodat­ed in this short time frame. There’s many things she wants to do for 2021, including electronic voting that allows you to cross reference who has voted and who hasn’t.”

Lori Williams, an associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University, said plebiscite­s differ from standard elections, making things difficult for city officials.

“One of the difference­s is that you have in a typical election, you got existing polling stations, wards — everything is sort of in place well in advance of the election,” she said.

“By contrast, this plebiscite … there’s a shorter time period and then it’s a different structure in place. You got one, city-wide vote as if you’re voting for a mayor, but not by ward. In terms of counting, it will be simpler, but because of the city-wide nature of it and the economic constraint­s … it might be a bit more difficult to organize.”

Williams said these economic constraint­s mean you can’t duplicate the usual election procedures.

“What it means is you can’t simply replicate the access points you would for a municipal election — you’ll have to have fewer stations, fewer workers and much less time to organize it,” she said.

“It’s challengin­g, both under those time constraint­s and the economic constraint­s. If the turnout is very low in this election, it’s going to make it difficult to say somebody has a mandate to go one direction or another.”

The only way the city, the province and the federal government could have meaningful informatio­n is if Calgarians ensure they vote in the plebiscite, Williams said.

“There has to be a significan­t turnout and for those who do want to participat­e and have their vote count, they might want to consider the convenienc­e of an advance poll,” she said.

For more informatio­n on the plebiscite, you can visit www.calgary.ca/vote2018.

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