Election day will be upon us
And I will be one of the people helping you out at the polls. This year, due to my lack of immediate employment, I have signed up for and been accepted to work on October 14, 2008 as a polling officer. It sounds important and impressive, but the qualifications for this are quite literally to be a Canadian Citizen, have an address, and know how to use a pencil. I’m the person that will be crossing people’s names off a list as they come up to the desk to say they are here to vote.
Training was at 1:30pm, and unfortunately I think I showed up at 1:35pm, because there is both a St. Andrews United Church, and a St. Andrews Presbeteryan church both on the same street, and the only words I really remembered was “St. Andrews” Thankfully I was admitted to the session, had a chair to sit down on, and was not the last person to have shown up.
What irritates me are people who keep pushing issues. This election requires some identification, more identification than previously, with the main/ideal situation being a form of photo ID that is government issued that also contains your name, address and a signature. This being said, the most popular said piece of ID is the Ontario Drivers License. Yes, the newest of new Ontario Health cards has all this information, but not everyone has such a health card. And there is flyers & all sorts of information regarding the ID you will need to bring.
It was irritating because this one man who was very annoying in many forms (first he was late, later than me, then he took a phone call while the lecture was in session, AFTER the instructor said to turn off all cell phones) kept pushing the issue. What if the person doesn’t drive? Well they can bring other ID. What if they only have their health card? Well they will have to bring another form (a bill from the hydro company for example) What if they only have their healthy card? Over and over again.
Finally it was stated. If the person has the new Ontario Health card with their picture, name, address and signature, they are allowed to use it as photo ID. BUT as the elections employees, we aren’t allowed to ask for it. So we can’t say “Can I see your health card?” BUT! As a voter, you can say “I don’t have a drivers license, can I use my photo health card? Here it is.” So voters can offer, votee’s can’t ask.
Oh, I also found out that I’m to work the entire 9:30am opening to 9:30pm closing shift, which does not include the one hour beforehand that I need to be there to set up, nor all the time in the world it will take to close and count. But I still consider this a good experience, because I get to be a bigger part of the democratic process. The downside? That since I’m working the whole day I can’t vote on the actual election day. I will have to find time sometime this week to vote at the advanced polls.
