23:54 - 06.12.05
baby it's cold out side.
Our furnace is not working at all now and it is still bitterly cold. Thought about that quote for a new natural gas furnace and decided that it was too much money right now. In Europe they use fireplaces and things like hot water bottles to stay warm. At the supper hour I asked number two son if he's mind going on a bit of a field trip. We went to the handyman store and found four heating units for a tenth of the price of the furnace. Granted the heating isn't as even, but it just means we wear another layer of clothing and move a little faster. Staying cold is also supposed to help one lose weight. Don't know about that one, but it can't hurt to try I suppose.
Work today? I emailed the second in command late last night letting her know that the next couple of days were not possibilities for doing that data entry. There is still too much work to be completed just to get the election juggernaut going. My assistant and I arrived at work to find that we had no receptionist. The one lady who signed on for full time days took this day and boxing day off. Hardly a dereliction of duty. No matter, we had a lot of telephone calls to make. Missing mail both ways today. We are getting the RCMP material and they are receiving ours - again. Someone at the post office must be dyslexic - or bent on a bit of mischief, take your pick. We set out the candidates' baskets in the open area of the waiting room and I filled them with the first round of paperwork that they are entitled to. Not that we actually have any candidates yet. The rules are that a potential contestant must file their nomination papers with me and I must ensure that all the signatures on their forms are those of eligible electors who reside in our riding. A minimum of 100 people must be willing to endorse the person running. We often have to disallow some names so we encourage those candidates to file early in case they need to go out and find some more supporters. No harm, no foul. There are five baskets in the foyer, not because we have that many filers, but because that was the number and party representation we had last election. It is the only useful measure we have right now and it is a consistent reflection of previous elections too.
Looked up to find a gentleman walking in to see us. The furniture company's rep. He had promised to come and look at our reception area to see if we could work out a solution for setting up the room so it meets all my criteria. We need a desk big and imposing enough to slow down cranky voters and politicians alike. Substantial enough to convey the idea of authority or stability. Blocking an uninhibited flow of traffic was also part of the package requested. The only single desk he had fitting that description was 15 feet long and about 10 deep. We just don't have quite that much space. He offered up a few alternate strategies as we did a brief tour of the office so he could get an idea of what we had to work with in terms of space. I saw him wince a few times. Can't be helped since we have no control over the layout of the office. He said he would get back to us within a day. Good guy and very pleasant - he seemed exhausted too.
Next up our first voters arrived. Snowbirds heading off in their motorhome for warmer climes. The southwestern US and Mexico for them for Christmas. Leaving tomorrow - could we tell them the names of the candidates? No we can't. Could they mail their ballot in when it was clearer who might be running. Sure thing - just had to register them and find all the correct pieces of paper to give them. Easier said than done. I asked my assistant to write down their particulars while I went searching among the twenty or thirty boxes of supplies for that particular service. My cell phone started ringing non-stop - mostly from Ottawa with various questions nd requests. Voters are always the priority, so I asked for and got permission to call back later. My assistant was feeling a bit uncertain about the process, but just missed the most common details overlooked by novice ballot providers. As we were looking after that couple, the reception phone started ringing. I looked after those queries while my assistant finished off with the couple. They seemed fine with their care, so we said good bye. Went over the process of issuing those ballots with my assistant and clarified a few steps for her.
When our actual ballot co-ordinator arrived, I headed to my office so that I could dig out the data that had been requested by Ottawa. The cell rang and it was the phone guy. Could he come by and fix that one lone phone - the hold out per se. He seemed a lot more stressed this week and that was sad. He had been fun to talk with, but he was obviously having trouble with some aspect of client service that had nothing to do with his own attempts to make things work. You can't account for client behaviour sometimes nor does old lines and codes of practice always lend itself to new technologies. Something brand new and top of the line 20 years ago can now seem obsolete and a fool's snare somehow. Got him settled as Ottawa was calling and my assistant stood at the door with one of our new revision supervisors. New to the task but well known by any one who shops at our grocery store. He does scheduling and managing of their team of workers so I am guessing that he won't find our little enterprise too difficult. Finally started to whittle away at the questions that had been posed by Elections Canada staff. Oops, I am starting to write outrageously as that is often what happens when I am really tired. I am going to take myelf off to bed now dear diary. Although when I read back some of what I wrote maybe I should have been in bed an hour ago at least. Talk with you later.
Soo... it is now 6 in the am and I think I might be coherent now. Sorry about that. The end of the day became stressful what with the furnace issue at home and the refusal of the landlord to honour our lease. - Sort of. Actually it is the company supplying security services to our landlord that is really starting to worry me and he seems to have a great deal of influence with respect to how decisions are made. Makes me wonder if he is gathering data from his secure sources then using the information for other purposes. Anyway our lease requires unrestricted access to our offices 24/7 for staff, workmen and the public as dicatated by the Elections Act. That lease was signed over two weeks ago. The security guy rendered a quote for the activiation of the alarm system at about that time. I would not authorize it because it was so high. Ottawa confirmed yesterday that they would not honour it because it was five times the average of what was being paid across the rest of Canada. I have no problem with the turn down because we are supposed to be steards of taxpayers money - not the spenders of it although we do a fair amount of that because we have to. What he has done in response while waiting is used his existing services in our building to obstruct access. When I told him that his quote had been rejected he indicated that he would withhld the services that are supplied to all tenants such as after hours electronic access for visitors until he got what he wanted. He refused to make the adjustments necessary and committed to over a week ago by the building manager until he had cash upfront. Normally service providers do as they are asked by the owners not the other way around. In addition, when the cleaners were in to get the office back to a useable state we suddenly found two doors that hadn't locked previously because part of the lock mechansisms had been removed were suddenly lcoked and had to be drilled out by the locksmith at considerable cost to the landlord yesterday. Today when my assistant went in to the kitchenette to make tea at supper time, she found herself locked in to a room where ther had been no way to lock it before. The kitchenette is quite remote from the rest of the office and no one heard her banging on the door for the longest time. Fortunately she had her son's cell phone with her and finally was able to telephone on of the staff so that they could come and get her out. The special voting room also has a locking device that sometimes won't release. I don't know if it is possible to alter those remotely or if someone would have to get into the offices after hours - which a security provider would be able to do, but it is making me very uncomfortable. Odd as it sounds I don't like using the in office washrooms either. I find my way to the public ones whenever I get the chance. There is just something not right there - especially around the showers. Maybe I have that "psycho" complex. A lot of people who watched the shower scene in that movie have always had difficulty using one after. Doesn't bother me elsewhere though. Anyway, He did say we could get a quote from someone else - but that came with a hint of a surcharge for access to existing conduits. Probably at the amount quoted in his estimate I bet.
We had our first full dress rehearsal of classes for staff going door to door to register voters set up for the evening, so it meant I had to station one of our staff by the main doors downstairs to let our trainees in and to provide access to any elector who wanted to register to vote or pick up their ballots like our morning snowbirds did. In addition the request for parking access that was also part of the lease negotiations seems to be being held up for the same reason. It is bitterly cold outside and we need to ensure that the staff who are in all day can starts their vehicles at the end of their shifts. The area is too remote from regular auto services to leave them at risk. I asked for stalls with plug ins for their batteries as well as some underground parking stalls. That was done at the time of the signing of the lease and again on the weekend. Bleagh.
While all the negotiation was occuring the one sure candidate walked in to retrieve his paperwork. With him came the woman who insists on giving out my home information each electoral period rgardles of my requests to cease and desist. I think she was maybe trying to avoid any further discussion about it by ensuring that he arrived with her. I actually like him as a person and it bothers me that she would undermine his public reputation by pulling such diry little stunts with people who's assistance he needs. If she is doing such things to me it is certain that she is doing it to others then making their reaction to her behaviour a reason to create a breakdown in communication and trust between him and them. I hope that doesn't happen here becasuse it is my job to ensure that candidates are well supported in their efforts to run a clean and successful campaign and it is one of the aspects of this assignment that I really enjoy. I provided additional verbal information to her in his presence with respect to online registration for special ballots and for employment applications. Reduces two of her tools to harass anyway.
The staff that were looking a little wobbly recovered and did a great job today. It is normal to be uncertain and have performance anxiety in a new position. Once the training got under way I could see the tension start to fade into black. Our first set of agents now have their assignments and the chinnok I've been hoping for begins later today.
The one other stressor started with an odd email this morning. I had protested again about the tampering with my polling divisions because of the additional door to door registration it was likely to make necessary. The response back was that new boundaries had been created and that maps had been provided to me with an update that I was supposed to have reviewed and responded to. The memo was written in the past tense but I hadn't been told any work had been done with respect to fixing what they had damaged let alone received any physical material. I can't look for what I don't know about now can I? In less than two weeks I have to have secured and verified all my polling stations plus designated polls to all those and have authorized the printing and distribution of the Voter Information Cards that help electors find their voting station. The caller wh is very high up in the organization let me know just today that they had also tinkered with several other PDs also without letting me know or consulting with me about the changes. That requires a lot of time and staff to carry out in some stages as well as the co-ordination of the service providers who must print and distribute the material. That is one tass out of many as well. When my tech came in a supper time I asked him to see if he could fetch some of the changes up in the uploaded material we were given the evening before. Now that I know it is there I can act and it is lucky I have someone who can facilitate that for me so easily once we knew we had to look for it. What concerned me was that people several thousand miles away who don't know the riding are adjusting the lines on the maps. It smacks of the potential for gerrymandering, which is why we are the only ones supposed to have the authority to make changes. Doing such things without our knowledge is not good faith and it has created countless hours of additional work that shouldn't have been necessary. Bealgh too. When I asked the caller how much I could make readjustments to fix the several erros they've created he stated that there was no time for those changes, but that I could call him to discuss and review those changes once I had reviewed the new documents. When would I receive those documents? Well they had been located in a warehouse yesterday in Ottawa and would be shipped immediately - a day o two away. So now we are faced with changing and reconfiguring all our maps fr in house and polling day staff and we will hae to rewrite our poll keys and recalibrate our voter's list to reflect those changes all during an event well underway.
The one good thing? The school boards are being very supportive and helpful in doing that reconfiguration by approving my reuests very early on in the game. My staff understand that those changes are necessary and aren't complaining about the constant changes in direction form Ottawa. That hasn't always been the case in other elections as you know. If they had refused to accept that change we could have seen some of the undermining that happened last time. Anyway time to go see if I can get some of that work cleaned up in addition to all the regularly scheduled activities I have to be certain are up and moving along.
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