An official complaint has been filed with Edmonton Elections after voters were given ballots for the wrong public school board wards.
Trisha Estabrooks, chair of the Edmonton Public School Board and trustee candidate in Ward D, said her agent filed the complaint Wednesday.
“I’m extremely concerned,” Estabrooks said.
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She explained she’s fielded more than a handful of calls and emails from supporters saying that when they went to vote in advance polls, they were given an incorrect ballot for Edmonton Public School Board trustee.
Other trustee candidates, including Jan Sawyer, were also contacted by supporters who said they received the wrong ballots.
On Wednesday night, Edmonton Elections acknowledged the problem in a statement to Global News.
“Edmonton Elections has received concerns from a handful of voters regarding the public school board trustee ballot they received,” it read.
“We can confirm the following: Voters received the incorrect public school board ballot and were able to resolve the issue prior to voting. In very few cases, voters indicated they received and cast the incorrect ballot.”
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Global News spoke to a number of voters who experienced the problem firsthand, and were frustrated by the experience.
Michelle McLean was among the first to vote when advance polls opened Monday afternoon.
McLean lives in the riding of Metis, but council wards and school board wards have entirely different boundaries.
She did her research in advance, and knew who she wanted to vote for in each race.
“I had looked up candidates for the Edmonton Public School Board, for Ward G. Because that was the ward when I looked on the map on the Edmonton Election website — that was the ward I was in based on the neighbourhood that I live in.”
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But when she got inside her polling station, something was wrong.
“I got a form that had Ward D candidates on it. And I was like, ‘I don’t know any of these candidates.’ I don’t look at any of their platforms.”
McLean said she’d been waiting in line for a while to vote, and wasn’t sure if she should bring it up with an election worker or not.
After a few minutes, she decided to speak up.
“They input my address into a tablet and that seemed to be coming up with the wrong ward. But she tried it a couple more times and then eventually it came up with the right ward, so they were able to switch everything around for me and I got the right voting form.”
In the end, McLean was able to vote for the candidate she wanted to, in the correct ward. But she contacted Global News because she was worried about other voters.
“What if this happens to other people? Other people might not be able to advocate as much to be able to get their form changed, because it was a complicated process.”
She also feels public school board trustees have a key role to play.
“Education is important. It’s the next generation, the future. So having people who have an understanding and experience with what we need in education is really important to me.”
A senior who lives in Grovenor said she took a lot of time researching who she wanted to vote for, feeling that especially this election, the position of school board trustee is critical.
But when she went to her advance polls, Anne — who asked that Global News not use her last name — said she didn’t recognize any of the names on the ballot.
Instead of getting a Ward C ballot, Anne said was given one with candidates running in Ward D.
Anne said she was confused, and didn’t know what to do. She said the candidate she planned to vote for wasn’t an option on her ballot, and she didn’t know anything about the candidates running in the other ward.
She ended up picking a name at random — but then went home and called Edmonton Elections to report the problem.
Anne said she wants to be allowed to re-vote for the candidate in her actual ward.
“I want it fixed,” she said.
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Global News has asked Edmonton Elections what is being done to rectify the problem.
Their advice to voters is this: “We encourage voters to take their time at voting stations and ask any questions if they are unsure about their ballot.”
After three days of advance voting, more than 19,000 Edmontonians had already cast ballots.
The turnout is on track to shatter the 2017 numbers, when 26,198 people voted in advance polls over the full 10-day window.