Just Back From Voting. 1st Time for Fixed Date Election
Well thing have changed since I last voted provincially. The polling location is the same, but organization of the polling place is very different. We shall see if it speeds up the process of voting.
When my wife and I voted very few people in the place, officials out numbered voters.
You must have the document that puts on the "voting list" or other wise prove your residency to determine your poll.
The ballot is organized differently. No longer a small black thick paper. Now a letter sized piece of paper.
The candidates are no longer listed by alphabetical order on the ballot. Seems as if the names are on the ballot by the party results in the last election.
I had to choose one candidate out of 5 choices. They were listed in the order of Liberal, Progressive Conservative, ND Party, Green and the new People's Alliance of New Brunswick party.
People's Alliance of New Brunswick have formed this year, PANB info here
The ballot is new format and voting procedure as well.
In past you received your ballot marked it and return to the election official to show her/him the folded ballot with her/his initial showing before placing the ballot in the box.
Presently you have a cover card placed over the ballot, you go to the place to mark the ballot, replace the card over the ballot and deposit it in the fiberboard (cardboard) box. Drop the ballot in the box. You return the cover card to an election official.
I suspect the letter size piece of paper falls flat into the box.
The ballot is not folded and lying flat, as such, it should make a huge difference in the speed of the count.
I fear in this election if many voters were given a choice of none of the above, that would take the largest share of the poll.
Interestingly the People's Alliance of New Brunswick a conservative splinter group is running 14 candidates in traditional strong Tory ridings. We shall see if the PANB impacts the outcome of this election. Here is a synopsis of the campaign.
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Be wary be very wary of Ostentatious Grandiose Lambaster
Good for you, BigDL. Democracy in action. Paix, mon ami.
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Dr.G.
14" G4 iBook
15" MacBook Pro (July, 2009)
13" MacBooK Pro with Retina Display
Paix
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read these books." Mark Twain
It is expected to be a tight election as Liberal Leader Shawn Graham tries to avoid becoming the first New Brunswick premier since Confederation to be ousted from office after only one term.
Graham's Liberals had 32 of the legislature's 55 seats when the 32-day campaign started. The election is the first to be held under the province's fixed election date law.
Well, well, it looks very much to me that voters across Canada continue their rejection of all things Liberal:
Quote:
The Progressive Conservatives have defeated the ruling Liberals and will form a majority government in New Brunswick.
The Tories took about 49 per cent of the popular support, the Liberals had 34.5 per cent and the NDP had about nine per cent.
Progressive Conservative Leader David Alward was elected in his Woodstock riding.
"Over the last two years, we've demonstrated to New Brunswickers that we wanted to put New Brunswickers first for a change and they respect that," Alward said as he got off his campaign bus.
"I'm humbled to be their premier."
Alward told his hometown crowd that he had already spoken with Liberal Leader Shawn Graham and they agreed to put in place an orderly transition of government.
NOTICE: If you see links to ads in the above post, blame the cheesy ad-linking software used by the owners of this website. I do not endorse these ad links. Don't click on them.
I wouldn't go as far as SINC in declaring the Tory Landslide here an indication of a rejection of "all things Liberal" but it certainly is a resounding rejection of the Provincial Liberals. Shawn Graham should be considering changing careers. He did manage to get re-elected in his own riding, but he obviously led his party off a cliff, and he's the first one-term premier this province has ever had.
I had very confidently predicted a Tory majority as the outcome, but I didn't expect it to be such a landslide
BigDL, as one who lives in NB, did you expect this sort of result?
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Dr.G.
14" G4 iBook
15" MacBook Pro (July, 2009)
13" MacBooK Pro with Retina Display
Paix
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read these books." Mark Twain
Sorry for taking so long to reply but I was hoping to have the results of the percentage of the population that voted versus the number of voters eligible. I was interested to see if there was a downward shift of voters “fed up” with the process.
I noted that many voters that had supported the Liberals left and that support went to the Green and NDP, over 4% to the Green’s and over 5% to NDP. For a total of over 10%. The tories only received 2.2% of the disaffected Liberal vote.
The New Brunswick People’s Alliance (NBPA) a party formed and registered only 6 month before the election, running only 14 candidates acquired 1.18 % of the total votes in the Election.
The really interesting and important result was many NDP and the Green candidates were able to attract 10% or more of the votes cast and there by receiving their deposit back. This will provide these parties a base to work from rather than starting from scratch at the next election. With fixed election dates and money the Green and ND Parties should be to mount better organized and funded campaigns in the next election.
I believe the Green and ND Parties will also receive Provincial funding as well the same as the PC and Liberal Parties. The NBPA will not receive any funds and will start over from scratch. The NBPA will have four years to organize if they can get some traction on their legislative reform agenda or have other issues and are to be more than a one issue NB Power Sale Party.
The Confederation of Regions Party had some success in the early to mid ninety’s and formed Official Opposition status in the Legislature. Some info here.
The results of this election remind me of the results in a Nova Scotia about the time Alexa McDonough left Nova Scotia to become Leader of the Federal NDP.
The smaller party was able to achieve enough success to win deposit back and in some cases to come second in some constituencies or a very strong third.
This happened this time in this election. The other bonus for the NDP this time is their leader is Acadian, and was able to make en roads on the eastern side of New Brunswick. Previously Saint John area was the base for the NDP.
The Green Party has a leader that was a formal Liberal and strategist to Frank McKenna when McKenna had great success in NB.
The PC Party acquired 76% of the seats in the legislature with 48% of the popular vote. Electoral reform as outlined in this link could improve the representation in the Provincial legislature to be reflective of the voters choice.
So all in all I am some what hopeful for democracy in New Brunswick. Even without electoral reform perhaps the results of this election shall be a harbinger of change in the political landscape of NB.
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Be wary be very wary of Ostentatious Grandiose Lambaster
This story is in today with regard to the numbers of voters casting ballots. The lowest number of ballots since 1978. But a complicated lowest number.
Quote:
At 71.5 per cent, that would be the highest voter turnout since 1999, ending a two-campaign streak of declining voter numbers.
But the higher voter turnout can be credited to fewer people on the province's list of registered voters.
There were 520,872 people on the voting list and 372,502 ended up casting a ballot on Sept. 27.
Four years ago, 558,688 people — almost 40,000 more than in 2010 — were on the voting list and 377,244 ballots were cast, leading to a 67.5 per cent voter turnout.
So even though a smaller percentage of eligible voters cast ballots in 2006 than in 2010, there were more votes cast in the 2006 campaign that elected Graham's Liberals.
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