While I promised to ignore the election happening south of the border, I saw a short video clip from the vote happening down there that I think is important for us here in Canada. The clip showed a line of people who went to vote, it wrapped around the block, and the person who uploaded it to the internet declared that it was what democracy looks like.
As I type this, I just returned from voting in the most recent provincial election, and I was not standing in a line that stretched out around the block. Indeed, I was not in any line at all, as I arrived at the polling station it was nearly empty. There are two reasons for that. One, because of COVID-19, advance polls and mail-in ballots were promoted much more heavily for voters in Canada - contrast that with south of the border, where the veracity of mail-in ballots was called into question numerous times. Two, the people who were running the polls are actually really efficient, and if I was in the place for more than five minutes I would be very surprised. The previous federal election, which was conducted under much more normal circumstances, I was in a line, but that line was short, extremely well managed, did not extend out the door and stretched my time in the polling station to maybe 10-20 minutes.
I’ve never had much of a wait when I’ve voted, it’s usually a very quick process in this province. While this year was undoubtedly the quickest I’ve ever gone in and out of a polling station since I began voting at 18, it’s still never really slow, and elections across Canada are very well run and efficient.
As a result, this is what I personally think democracy looks like, instead of a massive line around the block. Nice, efficient, quick and easy. A system designed around moving people through the polling station as quickly as possible, and to give each poll only a small number of people. It works extremely well, and I’d argue that if any country wanted to set up free and fair elections they would do well to sit in with Elections Canada during a Canadian vote. The elections here are simple, they’re effective and they work.
Since we’ve got two elections running concurrently to the elections south of the border, in Saskatchewan we’re seeing a stark difference between how well they are run in Canada and how strangely poorly they are handled in the US. It seems, somehow, that south of the border they try to make elections work as poorly as possible. People talk about how they are worried that their ballots won’t count, they talk about how they have to double and triple check voter registration to make sure they even can vote, they talk about long lines in the cold and inefficient polling stations and doubts about whether or not their vote even counted. Things that we have no issues with here in Canada.
There’s clearly no reason why America can’t have an efficient, easy to handle system designed to get people through the polls as quickly as possible. Unlike other Canadian services that Americans don’t have for some reason, they also have elections and need a way to actually do them. They really need to look to the north and realize that it doesn’t have to be as bad as they have it. But when we look to the south, we should realize how lucky we are that voting here is as easy and as simple as it is.
