Pipestone Flyer
Monday, Oct 21st was a special day for this reporter as we had an opportunity to see an election from a very different viewpoint. Our day started at 8:30am at City Hall where we had the pleasure of serving as a Deputy Returning Officer for the city election.
Here we picked up the material we would need for the day and were given the opportunity to work a poll that was designed for those who could not make it to one of the seven polling stations because of various disabilities. So instead of them coming to a poll we brought the poll to them. Our partner was Dave Jorgensen, a retired assistant principal at Leduc Composite High School. Our first stop was at Lifestyle and we were set up by 10am. To say the least of all the voters that would come to our poll were senior citizens, but they were anxious to vote and they knew most of the candidates and had no difficulty in making their choices.
When 12:30 rolled around it was time to head for our next location at Extendicare. Here all of the voters were restricted to wheelchairs and special accomodations were made to allow them to vote. One of the voters surprised us when she told us she was 97 and was quite aware of who she was going to vote for and the accomplishments of the current city council. Later that day we were told of another lady who was 99 and was also quite aware of the important issues of the city and school board.
Over the years we have covered elections as a reporter, election clerk, and even as a Returning Officer for the province but in all those years we never saw how the most senior of our citizens view an election until Monday. It was a pleasure and an education in working as a Deputy Returning Officer for the City of Leduc and thanks to Returning Officer Eugene Miller for assigning us a station that gave us a new insight on how important it is to provide all our citizens the opportunity to vote.
Our day at the polls ended around 11:30pm after counting ballots and recording the results. It was a full day but one that provided us with new insights about the human condition.