Reply #79: ta

[iverglas]

My favourite bit of bizarre partisanship occurred in a federal election a few years ago. I was inside scrutineering for the NDP candidate and was in for the count. The Liberal scrutineer was obviously sincere and had clearly taken his instructions to heart. He challenged about two dozen ballots for being improperly marked -- anything that could be "identifying" is ruled out, and he considered shakey Xs identifying. (An example of the importance of this is the tight municipal race I mentioned -- one of the ballots that the judicial recount hinged on had been marked with a happy face. This *could* be a signal to a scrutineer that the vote that was paid for was in fact cast, and is therefore unacceptable.)

Problem was, the vast majority of the ballots he was challenging were ballots cast for his own candidate. Hmm.

I may have challenged one ballot. When the count was done, I said I would withdraw my challenge (it was fairly obvious my candidate was going to win that poll, and the riding) and suggested he do the same. He did. ;)

Inside scrutineers for the various parties tend to be collegial among themselves, and with the poll officials as well. Scrutineers, especially for the NDP, are often more versed in the ways of the vote than the casual employee poll officials are, and this can cause conflict but also smooth things over on occasion. Sometimes you'll get an officious poll official or a snotty Liberal or a dirty-tricks Conservative, but those are the exceptions generally. You spend 8 hours cramped together up on hard chairs in a crowded schoolroom or such, you share your junk food and crib from each other's voters' lists.