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Improvements needed in municipal elections

I have been involved in elections for 25-plus years including organizing and finalizing.

Dear Editor:

I have been involved in elections for 25-plus years including organizing and finalizing.

I have been after the municipality (Penticton) to move the election to October so that the towns and cities in the snow areas will allow persons to vote in better weather.

Alberta elections are the second last Monday in October when the weather is better.

Another consideration is that I am a snowbird and most of us seniors go south by the first of November.

And who always votes these days? It is the seniors and we are getting scarce and the voting is going to go below a turn out of 40 per cent in the very near future.

Mayor Janice Perrino was instrumental in getting the municipal elections to go to October but it is going to be four years from now.

The last election was in mid-November and the city staff mailed me a ballot from Oroville to Yuma but our great postal services didn’t deliver for a week and I did not ever find out if my ballot made it back in time but I am positive it didn’t as I mailed on the Monday before the Saturday election.

So, the government has moved to October in 2018, but they need more advanced polls, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then the final day which is usually the Saturday.

I will be leaving for the winter on Oct. 26 so I will be unable to work or vote.

I will be working for a senator in Arizona who is in favour of the XL Pipeline.

Ken Johnston

Penticton