Some Edmonton voters – who represent him in the Senate’s red room and how to set the clocks in Alberta – met him on the ballot Monday.
Sarah Clapstein said when Father Michael Troy of South Edmonton left the polling station at Catholic Junior High School.
“Some of them threw me in. I wasn’t ready to vote on some questions and some options. So I did my best and left the rest empty.”
The municipal election includes general ballots for the mayor, city councilor and school board trustees but includes the opportunity to elect Alberta Senate nominees and consider two referendum questions – one equalization, the other daylight saving time – put forward by the province
Clapstein said he wanted the municipal vote to focus solely on the municipality. He said the number of questions is overwhelming even after doing his research.
“I think the ballots this year have been very wide. I would say that is too much,” he said. “There are a lot of things I don’t think we should vote for. Daylight saving time, I feel like we can vote at a different time. But that’s what it is.”
Clapstein plans to watch the election results on Monday evening and is anxious about who will replace Don Iveson as mayor.
“I know it’s a tight race and I know which way to go.”
Kenneth Muir said he did more research than usual for this election but is still struggling to make an informed choice on all questions.
“I have done a fair amount of reading on the mayor and ward councilor but not so much on the trustees because I am busy. Lack of time, I guess,” he said.
“There are many hours in the day and sometimes local elections do not rank as high as provincial and federal.”
Muir said he made Senate and school trustee choices without much knowledge of the candidates.
“You have no clue who Moroso is with the election of the senator and the school trustees,” he said. “To be honest, sometimes you’re just choosing at random.”
The polling stations were generally quiet as Monday’s polling took place but there were some significant crises.
Due to lack of supply, some polling stations were temporarily delayed. Edmonton Elections apologized for the disturbance and urged affected voters to return to their polling stations.
Inaccurate school trustee ballots have also been issued at seven polling stations but the problems have been “quickly resolved,” the Edmonton Elections said in a statement Monday.
Voter Violet Walker said she did a lot of research before voting.
“There were so many issues and so many candidates, so I really had to do a lot of research, especially on the councilors and the mayor, of course.”
Fred Walker said he was busy working outside the city and left the election research to “my good wife.”
“And I was delighted with her choices,” she said.
As of 12:50 pm today, more than 36,000 voters have voted.
Edmonton has seen record-high turnout for early voting, and final results are expected for the next slate of municipal representatives later this evening.
Voting at 212 polling stations across Edmonton is open from 9 am to 8 pm
Edmonton brings you live municipal election results on Radio One at 93.9 FM and listen. Join Mark Connolly, Nancy Carlson and Tahirih Faroozan for a special broadcast starting at 8 p.m.