12:00 a.m. - 2004-07-06
Election Day
Twas the day before the election, to continue yesterday's post Scheherezade, and all through the office creatures were stirring, but essential tasks weren't being done. My financial officer commented that she felt that a lot of the people in question were assuming that friendship and old ties with me - of the volunteer persuasion - meant they didn't really have to do anything to keep their jobs.
Most of the balloting kits had been picked up, but a common phenomenon before polling day had filled my day on Saturday and caused some problems on Sunday. That being the issue of cold, or in this case, hot feet. Warm, sunny weather - in the 80s F/mid 20s C - and the prospect of a long weekend approaching with Canada Day on July 1st, meant a lot of people we had hired were calling in to say they wouldn't be working, because they had the chance to get away on holidays instead. Can't blame them, but it left my recruitment staff scrambling to fill in the empty spots. The only jobs that are deemed absolutely essential, by law, are the DRO and Poll Clerk for each polling division we have. That is 214 polling divisions times 2 or 428 people.
However, on Thursday Ottawa had sent out a fiat demanding that we overhire considerably for those positions and poll supervisors plus double up on Registration Officers as well as Information Officers. Nothing like raising the bar impossibly high just before an event. The way I saw it was, that as long as we had all the legislated positions filled and addressed high registration in the polling sites serving new areas, we were on target.
My recruitment staff took the orders to heart though and were frantically trying to meet the Ottawa targets. They calmed down considerably when I told them that one of the other Calgary ridings had 40 people quit on Saturday morning by 10 am. Another riding knew it wasn't even going to be able to fill the legislated positions. Tough sell, that 15 hour day with no breaks until the counting is completed - not at the wages Ottawa chooses to offer. We had all our essential places filled and a buffer besides, but we chose to err on the side of caution since there are always a few no shows on polling day too. The biggest issue with so many people quitting in the two days prior, is keeping tabs on the people being moved from less essential jobs to the more critical places. In some ways it was like playing chess. This move meant that move next - or was it that one, or that one there. Training also was an issue. Some people were moved into positions that they hadn't received full training for - that means a lot of anxiety on everyone's part, from poll supervisor to the partner of the person replaced. By six pm on Sunday all the ballot boxes had been assigned and picked up. My recruitment staff had managed to do a magnificent job given the circumstances.
The problem was that because I wasn't able to fully focus supervisory pressure on the mice (staff) who chose to play instead of working whenever they could, the kits necessary for the poll supervisiors still weren't even close to being assembled on Sunday morning. Part of that had to do with the lateness of receiving the ballots, voters lists and list of employees for each station ( you can't give what you don't have),but also there was a insistence on a couple of key people's parts that they waste time on non-essential tasks that we didn't have the time or resources to complete. You know the ones - the packaging or flash and glitter that some people want to be associated with instead of the substance we needed.
By Sunday morning I wasn't in the mood to quibble or beg any more. I asked my assistant and one of the supervisors to just focus on assembling the balance of the kits so that the poll supervisors could pick them up by noon. Not unreasonable since they had to open polls less than 18 hours later and they had to have that material to function. Right. Well the supervisor began doing what I asked, then wandered off to work on one of his pet projects first. I watched then went and called him back on task about five minutes later insisting that today the only way was my way. He and his wife heard me loud and clear and settled down to get things done. My assistant, however, decided that he wanted his partner in crime to go back to the glitter project. He sent the wife off on a goose chase then pulled his buddy away from the work that I had asked the supervisor to do twice already and instructed him to go back to what "he had told him to do, because it was more important for polling night". At that point I emerged from my office and said I was tired of being undermined by the constant interference in my directions to staff - all of whom are told when hired only report and answer to me - and that I would not tolerate one more infraction. A little late in the game to put my foot down I know, but my financial officer had made a point and I also needed to be certain that everything of a legal nature was addressed first. My assistant grumbled and complained then quit saying I obviously didn't want him around so he was going. Actually I did want him around but I also wanted him to do the work he was hired and very well paid to do. He commented as he was leaving that he wasn't happy with the amount of money he was making anyway. Right. His last job paid him half the amount he was making now. It was the fact that there were deadlines and standards of performance to meet that were the problem for him. He was quite shocked I think at the look of relief on my face. It is too difficult to get such a big task underway when there are people constantly undercutting you who are supposed to be helping. Last election Ottawa itself had been the big challenge, this time it had been some of my own staff. That is more hurtful because it becomes personal. Having an emotional or historical tie thrown in your face to justify unacceptable behaviour and attitudes is harder to respond to. At some point one has to demand some accountablility from every worker on a job site. That is doubly important for positions where leadership is vested. Arrgh.
Anyway once the assistant had flounced out, everyone lese setlled down and got the balance of work done. The women on our team were of the opinion that he - well never mind it doesn't matter does it, dear diary. Polling day dawned at 6 am - a bright sunny day. There were three people who didn't show up for work so we shifted our back up people into those positions and even sent a couple over to the riding that were short staff for the legislated positions. Staffing in the office was thin but by noon there was a full quota of people answering phone calls about where to go to vote. It was very busy for me because I have the central poll supervisors checking in with me on a mandated reporting time.
There were a number of transfer certificates that had to be produced as well becuase of the movement of staff to polling stations that weren't their own, at the last minute. Some of the staff would have lost their votes otherwise. The certificates are very time consuming to produce, because they have to be done completely by hand. I had hidden them under the blank oath forms at the beginning of the event when one of the supervisors brought me a huge supply to use for staff training. He recalled placing them over top of the tranfers at my request, because I went on at some length about how much I hated doing them on polling day. Not the part about ensuring someone has their chance to vote but just the time wasted filling each one out properly. I know whine with cheese, right? Anyway they had disappeared from my locked cabinet and from under the pile of oaths without a trace. We turned my office upside down looking for them - four of us who had seen them - to no avail. There were none available in electronic form either.
I finally recalled that I had a copy from last election in the forms binder and asked my Automation Co-ordinator to produce the three part form necessary for about 30 to 40 people. They had to mess with NCR paper and resize the form I had to fit but it was done and the certificates sent out to the various stations on time. I can't say too often how lucky I was to hire the Assistant Automation Co-ordinator I had this event. He was a last minute, gut instinct hire - an unknown quantity. My Automation Co-ordinator had balked because he wasn't anyone she knew at all but none of the people she wanted would take on the job in the end. That was a very good thing and they ended up becoming friends anyway.
Polls closed at 7:30 PM on a relatively quiet day incident wise. One of the tools that we had created for our supervisors was a very large colourful poster that listed the offenses people could be charged with for misbehaving at the polling stations along with the penalties in fines and jail time that would be applied if required. I think that prevented a lot of potential confrontations. That and the Warrant for Arrest that every poll clerk was issued with their kits. Gave polling day staff the opportunity to say to ornery voters "make my day" in a low key type of way. The man who had called and threatened becuase his name was on the list did show up at his polling station to vote. The supervisor, who I had chosen specifically to deal with that issue, for that station had been fully briefed and had been given carte blanche to do whatever it took to get him in and out of the station as quickly as possible. A man with a dog leashed but threatening entered another polling station where he wasn't eligible to vote. It was reported that he was barely restraining the dog and was creating quite a scene. The supervisor stayed on the phone with me as she walked out of the polling place to find the custodian of the building. Fortuneately he was able to get the male out of there with no harm to any one. Two of my male staff in the office were out the door as soon as the call came in and were at the school in question within a few minutes. They calmed that supervisor down then went to check to see that the man in question hadn't tried to go to the next polling station with the same intentions. He hadn't so that turned out ok.
Polls closed at 7:30 pm and results started rolling in within the first half hour. By 9:30 pm every station had called in and by 10:30 every ballot box had been received and checked in thoroughly by the team set up to carry out that duty. I had bought pizza out of my own funds to offer to the very tired central poll supervisors as they arrived. Sharing food with the staff waiting to process them kept things on a light and somewhat social note. I wanted everyone's day to end with some pleasant memories. We had everything done and locked up by 10:30 but were told by Ottawa that we had to wait until they sent us the results form the national voters who lived in our riding but had voted by special ballot - seven names in all.
By midnight we still hadn't received anything so I called and said I was sending my remaining staff home and shutting down the computer systems despite the requirement to do other wise. It isn't right to reward good work on my staff's part with the punishment of being kept at work into the next day when we knew that we would have to be in the office early again to get the next legal step in the process completed on time as mandated by the elections act. As I was talking with an obviously exhausted counterpart in Ottawa - they are 2 hours ahead of us in time - the fax machine began to whirr and the results came through. I was told that the province one hour behind us in time - 11:00 pm their time were being given their results first because of the closeness of the races there. Along with the numbers for our writing came a hand written apology from the second in command in Ottawa. That has never happened before. My staff noted I should frame it since it was such an extraordinary gesture as we were locking up to leave for a few hours sleep. I think I might.
Anyway, I have to be up very early this morning to receive another call from Ottawa so I can finish off the last of my statutory duties this week so I will finish the story tomorrow, dear diary.
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