Aug. 14, 1948: Voters urged to mark upcoming ballots with numerals, not an X
THIS DAY IN JOURNAL HISTORY
X marks the spot on election ballots these days, but if you lived in Edmonton or Calgary, you were reminded that it would cost you your vote in 1948.
Valid ballots in the provincial election that year had to be marked with figures starting with the number “1” to indicate your first choice, “2” for your second choice, etc., because this was before wards and you might have to choose five people.
Marking ballots with an X automatically spoiled them, unless you were voting in a single-member or rural riding where you could place an X by your first choice and then continue on with figures, starting with the numeral “2” and on down.
This transferable or preferential voting system was in effect from 1926 to 1955, said Drew Westwater of Elections Alberta. Albertans now use an X on their ballots.
“They did X’s historically because we’d adopted the British parliamentary system ... because not everybody was literate or could write, but anyone could mark an X.
“Interestingly enough, when it started (the first provincial election in 1905), they didn’t have candidates’ names on the ballot, they just had coloured pencils and you would make your X with the coloured pencil that corresponded with the candidate of your choice,” he said.
As for the outcome of the 1948 election three days later, premier Ernest C. Manning led the Social Credit party to a fourth term in government, increasing its share of the popular vote further above the 50-per-cent mark it had set in the 1944 election, but keeping the same number of
seats — 51 of 57.