With regard to special voting, there were a few minor problems because the list of candidates was not available in its entirety at certain times. This situation could have caused problems for voters looking for the name of a serious candidate.
With regard to the advance polling station, there were problems because the spaces provided for voting were not large enough. That said, I think this problem also applies to general elections in general, if I may be permitted the pleonasm. Indeed, voters are increasingly voting in advance. The Chief Electoral Officer will have to ensure that the new electoral reality is adapted to meet the needs of society.
With regard to the counting of votes itself, the size of the ballot paper meant that the ballot boxes were often full very early in the day. I heard that the ballot boxes had to be changed at certain points during the counting process. This inevitably had an impact on the length of time it took to count the votes.
For example, Ms. Bibeau, an information and security officer, told me that she left the polling station at 3:30 a.m. because the number of ballots in the ballot boxes did not match, and you cannot leave the polling station until they match. Since she had to go to the returning officer’s office to return all the ballot boxes, she got home at 4:15 a.m. For this reason, she was unable to work the next day.
I think it is important for parliamentarians and the people on the Longest Ballot Committee to take into consideration the fact that election staff are often students, young people and elderly people who want to earn a little money because they are not very well off. We must think about these people, who are part of the working class and who care deeply about democracy. We should not inflict additional hardship on them.
Mr. Norris, who was my representative at a polling station, told me that election staff were very stressed and that, because of this stress, they were much less accommodating to political party representatives than they normally are.