10:45 - 29.01.06
election day
Sorry for the delay again dear diary. I guess the saying that it isn't over until the fat lady sings applies here. She hasn't done that yet.
As you probably know by now, there is another minority government in power with the margins of distribution of seats even less than last government. Feedback from both within our own organization and people I talk with in other country wide federal agencies indicate that we'll be doing this whole scenario again very shortly - before 2006 ends. Now, I do know from the text of the Canada Elections Act, that the political parties will not get their next disbursement of election money - parties can't fundraise from large corporate bodies anymore - for 9 months. Gestation period don't you know. A fall election then seems likely. Expect lots of drama and thunder in the intervening days. I've already asked my suppliers and service providers if they are willing to work for me again this year and all have said yes. The one unknown will be the office itself.
So picking up the threads of my story, I think the phone calls from the people who I chose not to hire this time, because of their sabotage of various processes last election, also confirm their close connections to powers vested in the process. That also lets me know who they are taking direction from with respect to their actions. One of my key staff this event commented out of the blue, that they thought that the person inside our operation doing the stealing of data this time, likely has close ties with the people who were suspect last time. Some of the staff do have those personal allegiances, but I can't convict them without evidence. Conjecture doesn't stand up in our courts of law as it does in the communication between the media and the public all too often. One of those people from last event showed up in my office last week - either theWednesday, Thursday or Friday afternoon - as I was trying to tie up the loose ends before voting day. She demanded to know why she had not been hired and also demanded her position back next event. She seemed to know it would be soon. She had been offered several other jobs by various people on my staff that didn't involve much time in the office, but she had turned all those offers down. Because several staff were involved in that discussion there is extensive evidence to prove that she had her chance if she decides to take it any further. Two of the other people involved last time have contacted me by phone or email this week trying the same tactics. Problem I have is that the mole that is sent in won't be someone I recognize. In some perverse way it might be smarter to let a known entity in, instead of an unknown. Inviting a rattlesnake into the house just doesn't seem wise though somehow.
I think my comments ended at the eve of election day. First installment on that day is next. The election was long and often difficult for a number of reasons - most having to do with conditions over which we had no control.
Election day began with one of my polling station supervisors calling to say he couldn't get in to the school because the janitor didn't show up. At 7:25 am, with five minutes to opening the polls, I told him he would have to line up his deputy returning officers with their ballot boxes opened up for voters along the sidewalk by the parking lot. They had a line up of about 50 voters, so they issued the ballots right outside. Good thing there was a chinook. Worked out well enough and people did vote on the sidewalk, but next time I think I'll tell him just to post a sign directing electors to meet him at the Tim Horton's two blocks away. At least that way everyone would be able to get hot coffee.
A couple of hours after that we started to get the real dirty tricks. In one school a woman tried to vote twice and caused an uproar with a male from one political camp that she brought back after her third attempt to obtain a second ballot within a short span. Sometimes I had four phones going at once; one time putting two together so the two political parties could duke it out. As that was happening one of my staff was calling 911 on her cell and I was still talking with the CPS as the principal stood by her. That little incident cost about two full hours of undivided attention as my two in house security guards - retired RCMP - instructed me on the fine points of reading a suspect their rights and executing a warrant so it can stand up in court. The person at the center of this incident returned to the polling station about then bringing along 100 of her closest friends to wait outside. When the police attended there they asked me what section of the criminal code the voter should be charged under. I told them it was the Elections Act, not the code, but they said they can't arrest without a criminal code violation. I'm not a judge or a lawyer, but that didn't seem right. I suppose some sort of charge of fraud would be the closest one could come to charging someone trying to get a second ballot. Quite honestly I didn't know how to instruct them at that point. I just wanted them to ensure the safety of everyone else in the immediate area. I was really upset with that particular political party's little publicity stunt - my read on the intent - because it caused an elementary school to go into lock down and put several hundred little people and their teachers at significant risk.
I thought I was getting things back on track - Ottawa demande EXTENSIVE documentation at that point to justify the expense of hiring a security guard for the balance of the day for that one school. Then I started getting calls from other schools where those friends of the perpetrators were showing up in cycles and other methods of cheating were being attempted. I think I spent most of the afternoon on the phone with other CPSs, the angry principals of schools, both big political parties and the police. Then the guy in the witness protection plan from last event got into it and there was my next few days shot as we were trying to get everything wrapped up. Yesterday there was a major security breach on my computer in one of those famous "moments of opportunity" so I was in the office dealing with the police until about 8 in the pm. I think I could blow out any blood pressure cuff within 500 meters just by walking past it right now.
�
�
