22:40 - 28.12.05
data entry
Yesterday was spent mostly sequestered with database repairs. One more quiet day before voter information cards hit the street. The stream of special ballot voters was much higher though, as the newpaper article continued to call people out to vote. A couple more classes of election day worker training. A call from the independent candidate. I hate having to shut my door and it is obviously causing some acting out by some of the staff.
Today pick up of our cats to be spayed. They don't like the idea at all and my arms are fairly scratched. The entire day was spent on the phone with the head men in Ottawa. Popped out to the diner next door at lunch with my assistant they make our orders specially despite what the menu says about being time sensitive. I get the breakfast omelet. Around to supper hour one of the higher on the totem pole. He's read the report from the head of technology and like him wants to know what can be done to move forward. Nice to get acknowledgement that there is relly a problem. The biggest concern for him is the number of ineligible people on our list. My concern especially for the Americans is that there are significant penalties for their names showing up on any other nation's voters' lists. It is obviously not their fault and they are calling immediately to have their names removed immediately upon receiving their voter cards. I relay that to the head tech with additional concrete examples to add tto the screenshots of the issues and problems we were discussing the day before. Next up a call from the local rep. By the way one of the experts in technology will be visiting the province in a weekor two - would I be willing to have him visit our electoral district. I suppose. More complaints about the way things are shaking out between two members of one team. Very different organizational patterns the problem so that is one task for tomorrow.
The one independent candidate shows up without notice to file papers. I have to do it now. Well no it is right in the instructions to ask for an appointment and quite honestly the database issue is more pressing for the next day at least. Calls from three other Returning Officers all experiencing similar issues with candidates and Ottawa. We commiserate with each other. The last Returning Officer has one of the large mostly rural ridings in Northern Alberta. Very different needs and values in the community but we collaborate on a communcations strategy that worked for me last election with respect to polling day. Interesting call. Sometimes talking with people from all over Canada is the best part of the job. The system crashes right at the end of the evening before those ubiquitous questions are answered. What to do. Called the headquarters help desk and talked iwth them. Got to talking with the tech about music as we were waiting for the modem to work it's magic. He took guitar as a child while I took piano. We both quit when the teachers we had spent most of their time yelling. Not a really good way to teach anything. Especially when asking a child of the 60's to play nothing but scales for a year. We both allowed that we only played by ear anymore. I can still read music and so can he but why not be creative about it. He was talking with the one returning officer in Calgary who actually is a composer/bandleader. We decided that we should get a group together of elections workers who want to join the cross Canada music train that travels this time of year. Sounds like fun to me. I miss riding on trains, think the last time was when I was about 10 years old. I got the upper berth. That was way cool. Any way time to ride another train - train of thought and dreams. Too tired for anything else.
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