Bringing the election to the camps
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Nov 15/00) - When voters can't go to the polling station, the polling station must go to them.
Yesterday Western Arctic Elections Canada special ballot co-ordinators left their Yellowknife headquarters for fly-in, fly-out mining and oil and gas camps.
"Teams will be flying in by fixed wing or helicopter, setting up in common areas frequented by staff, areas such as dining halls, with a schedule that overlaps multiple shifts over a period of up to 48 hours," said David Connelly, chief electoral officer for the Western Arctic.
Depending on the size of the camp, each remote polling station will be manned by 1-4 officials, who will bring a sealed ballot box and ballot screen and two boxes of reference material and supplies. Each team will also have satellite phone access to a list of all electors on computer in Yellowknife.
The only other time polling stations have been set up in such remote locations was during the last election, when one was established at the Ekati mine site, then under construction.
There are approximately 1,500 voters working at the nine remote sites the NWT, Connelly said.
All of the votes will be cast by special ballot, one of three ways there is to vote.
Special ballots are used by those who can not vote either on election day or at advance polls. Votes can be cast by special ballot any day from the dropping of the writ to within six days of polling day.
"Special ballots are also used to accommodate voters who are restricted from voting for other reasons, for example, long-term hospital patients," explained Connelly.
Voting at the camps will be slightly more complicated than election day or advance poll voting -- Connelly said it would take 10-15 minutes per voter.
Approximately half of the people working in remote camps are from electoral ridings outside the NWT.
Officials at the site will have a record of the confirmed candidates in each of the 301 electoral ridings. With the address of each voter, officials can identify the polling station where the voter is registered.
Once cast, the ballots will be returned to Yellowknife. Those for other electoral districts will be transported to Ottawa.
"At the end of this we'll file an after action report with Elections Canada on how the trial went," said Connelly. "Hopefully the experience gained will allow us to develop and enhance the process."
