Braid: Former chief electoral officer turned away by his former agency in bid to vote in referendum

Of all the oddities around voting in the referendum, this is surely the weirdest of all. Elections Alberta refused to accept a ballot from the former boss of Elections Alberta.

Glen Resler, chief electoral officer from 2013-23, was late mailing his special ballot because he’d been out of the province.

Resler says he doubted his envelope would arrive by mail before Friday’s deadline.

He decided to march the ballot over to Elections Alberta’s headquarters in Edmonton — his old office.

They wouldn’t take the envelope. It could only arrive by mail, they said.

Resler even spoke to his successor, Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure, about the matter.

No deal.

“If Canada Post delivers an envelope, it is accepted,” Resler says.

“If a courier service or an elector drops it off, it is refused.

“This does not seem democratic.

“It is a barrier to voting and will result in the disenfranchisement of my (and others’) vote.”

Resler said several people who came in behind him to drop off their envelopes were also refused.

Similar stories are common on social media.

Resler feels his old outfit is “deliberately putting up roadblocks to enable Albertan electors to vote by special ballot.”

Having seen the social media reports, Resler realized he might have a problem. But he figured his attempt might force a change.

“I thought, maybe this is the trigger. Maybe they’ll do the right thing and enable a section of the legislation and allow the delivery by hand.”

Surprisingly, Elections Alberta half agrees with Resler, even after his scolding.

“We do agree with Mr. Resler that the legislative changes with Bill 54 are a setback,” the agency said in a statement.

The law means special ballots must be posted, unless “mail delivery is not reasonably possible.”

But Elections Alberta doesn’t agree with that rationale.

“Today, people are much less reliant on traditional mail than they were historically, and may choose other ways to have important documents delivered securely,” Elections Alberta adds.

“We agree the legislation is limiting and hope the legislative assembly will consider an amendment.”

Chalk one up for Resler. But he isn’t satisfied.

He feels the agency must always strive to make voting as easy as possible, even if a rule has to be stretched a bit.

“The role of the chief electoral officer means you have to work within the legislation but, at the same time, you work with the legislation to enable the vote,” says Resler.

“You shouldn’t put up barriers to voting, and I think this is a barrier.”

The cost of the referendum is still a mystery. Another former electoral officer, Lorne Gibson, has said it could run up to $130 million.

“That’s way too high,” Resler says. He believes the final cost will be about $70 million, roughly double the spending on the last general election.

The postal bill alone must be monstrous. More than 650,000 ballot packages were mailed out, and nearly a half million are being sent back in.

The Alberta government may single-handedly eliminate the Canada Post deficit.

Finally, Resler says, “I think it is very strange that no one has held Elections Alberta accountable for not submitting a budget for the referendum. We have no idea what it’s costing.”

Elections Alberta responds that an earlier budget was approved, but the scale of the referendum was not anticipated.

“For example, Elections Alberta has already hired almost 47,000 election workers, received and processed more than 454,000 special ballot packages and there are many additional logistical requirements.”

We’ll get the final tab in November. It won’t be pretty.

Elections Alberta is usually about the dullest shop in the whole orbit of legislature offices.

Not with this referendum. It has officials at each other’s throats.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald