Dear Editor,
With regards to the recent town election, I am wondering who decides where polling stations will be?
Why do they have an advanced poll at the (Rimbey) Lodge which will give anyone in the Lodge a chance to vote yet the long term facility does not qualify for a polling station?
When I called the town office, the answer I received was that we would have to go to the community centre to vote. When I asked how we got there, I was told we would have to use the handi-van. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 residents in the long-term care facility.
Why should we tie up the handi-van for the day and why should it cost us $5 each to vote when the residents of the Lodge have voting on site?
I turned this problem over the care manager who phoned the town office several times over three or four days and was told she would be called back. The return call finally was received the Monday morning of the election which was too late to arrange for a bus or a handi-van.
I don’t know who decides where polling stations should be but don’t feel that the residents of the Lodge are any more entitled to a polling station than the residents of the long-term care facility.
I would like an answer to this question either to me at 403-843-2104 or to the care manager of the long term care facility?
We do get a polling station here for provincial and federal elections. What is the difference?
Andy Gillespie,
Resident of Rimbey’s long-term care facility
(On behalf of several of the residents of the long term care facility)