Following a recent trip to Edmonton, Rocky View County (RVC) Div. 2 (Springbank) Coun. Jerry Arshinoff is hopeful that he will receive direction from Municipal Affairs in the coming weeks with respect to what would be required to introduce a voters’ list before the 2017 fall RVC election.
Arshinoff is seeking clarification from Elections Alberta and Municipal Affairs about whether the county would need to fork out the funds (roughly estimated around $200,000) for door-to-door enumeration to put together a list or whether something can be done through mail or by obtaining a copy of the provincial voters’ list copy.
Even if the province comes back with a response that a door-to-door enumeration is the only solution, Arshinoff feels it’s “money well spent” and a drop in the bucket for a council who voted in favour of spending $42 million for a new municipal building in the face of an economic downturn.
Under the current voting system, Arshinoff feels the potential for fraud, including non-residents voting or people voting more than once (in advance polls and on election day) should be taken seriously – especially considering that some councillors won by very close margins in the 2013 election.
“I’m not saying it would or has happened (voter fraud), but why not put something in place so it doesn’t?” said Arshinoff.
With no voters’ list in place, residents who turn up to vote at advanced polls or on voting days need only show valid identification and swear via Form 8.
The difficulty is that ‘RVC’ is not listed on driver’s licences. The divisions of what qualifies someone as a county resident versus a Calgary or other community resident is difficult to extract from the address itself.
In essence, the current system is something of an honour system.
Unless someone went through a costly and time-consuming appeals process to contest the election and go through all the declaration forms, it would be difficult to even deduce if someone voted more than once or if a non-resident voted.
His attempt to bring the motion up twice in council this year was struck down both times. Rather, council voted in favour of a motion at its July 26 meeting to ask the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC) to request the province make amendments to the current Local Authorities Election Act in order to enable municipalities to make use of provincial information to inform their own voters’ list.
Arshinoff was the sole councillor who voted in opposition to the motion, which will see the County as the sponsoring municipality (around 31 other municipalities have expressed interest) to present the resolution at the coming November AAMDC convention.
The Springbank councillor feels this request is something the county could have requested directly from the province and is concerned nothing will be accomplished in time for the next county election.
