Penticton Election

[twobits]

Only two things really surprised me. Picton getting elected never mind topping the polls and the spread in votes for Mayor. I had read it as being a close race and it was far from that.

[Midnite]

Only two things really surprised me. Picton getting elected never mind topping the polls and the spread in votes for Mayor. I had read it as being a close race and it was far from that.

Katie Robinson may have had the single greatest influence on the whole election by unintentionally bringing out the younger voters.

[Drip_Torch]

Katie Robinson may have had the single greatest influence on the whole election by unintentionally bringing out the younger voters.

Okay, but if Robinson brought out the younger voters, (and I do think she may have mobilized them) What happened to the other voters? It seems to me we had a great deal of community engagement in this election and yet the turnout was actually down. Weird eh?

2011 - 8589

2014 - 8424

[rustled]

I had the impression voter turnout was higher, too.

Has anyone seen the breakdown in numbers for who voted when (total voters on the 15th, and total voters at advance polls)?

[Midnite]

I had the impression voter turnout was higher, too.

Seemed to be a line up all day?

[pentona]

Seemed to be a line up all day?

It was definately busy at the polls but maybe that's because Penticton only had one polling station. The numbers were actually down from 2011. I saw few young people voting, either that or the old folks just have young ideas and wanted big changes.

[twobits]

Okay, but if Robinson brought out the younger voters, (and I do think she may have mobilized them) What happened to the other voters? It seems to me we had a great deal of community engagement in this election and yet the turnout was actually down. Weird eh?

2011 - 8589

2014 - 8424

It is weird. What comes to mind for me, as a possible reason that makes some kind of sense, is that we had exactly the same demographic that usually come out to vote, but a great deal of the older end of the spectrum did not vote as per the usual script.
In hindsight, I am thinking that the whole Boonstock argument (for or against) may have been a catalyst beyond the obvious insult of head banging druggies, that caused many boomers to cast aside traditional voting patterns and lean toward some youth. I seriously don't believe the youth came out to vote. That is reflected in overall voting numbers. I think the regular and usual voters didn't buy into the fear mongering "it's gonna be a disaster and blight on our community" and threw some rope out to some candidates to prove themselves......or hang themselves. We shall see. Don't forget Hopkins' initial popularity and what a flake he turned out to be.
And for the record, one thing I was really pleased to see even though I thought she would be re elected by default, was Kate's pompous butt tossed down the road.

Katie, I know you read Castanet. If you don't believe in Karma, you should now.

[glassmaster]

According to the headbangers FB page and the Penticton group page, they will be showing up at tonight's council meeting. Their mission is to demand a manual recount of votes. Apparently they don't trust the machines and feel that the election results were possibly rigged. Kevin Proteau posted the following comment on the Penticton group page. This is just one post of many. Will be interesting to see how the Mayor and Council will deal with this situation.

Kevin Proteau: Do you all you guys drink from the well. I would get the water tested. We have crooked elections a crooked council.as well as crooked over-paid staff, You know who are. but you probably know that already with the company you keep Rob.I see your boss Mark Ziebarth tried to run another slate up in Summerland didn't work this time As for the candidate I donated my time to that has not gone anywhere it will continue to foster through out Penticton because his campaign was for us a we thing something that we can all benefit from.,not just the boys and girls club.I am here to help expose expose the corruption and then those that care some of thew solutions

[fluffy]

Kevin Proteau: Do you all you guys drink from the well. I would get the water tested. We have crooked elections a crooked council.as well as crooked over-paid staff, You know who are. but you probably know that already with the company you keep Rob.I see your boss Mark Ziebarth tried to run another slate up in Summerland didn't work this time As for the candidate I donated my time to that has not gone anywhere it will continue to foster through out Penticton because his campaign was for us a we thing something that we can all benefit from.,not just the boys and girls club.I am here to help expose expose the corruption and then those that care some of thew solutions

At the risk of stifling an opinion the author is duly entitled to, I had to chuckle at this quote. I wonder who the unnamed candidate was, perhaps a mayoral also-ran? Not that fringe candidates don't have a place on the ballot, after all we do have some fringe voters.

[madmudder]

Maybe get rid of that voting machine and open more polling stations around town so people don't have to stand in line for over an hour to vote then walk away because they don't want to wait. No wonder voter turn out was low. Again a lack of common sense from the supposedly intellect. Return to manually counting votes. So what if it costs more and you find out the results later. You'll still be elected. Another stupid move by staff. Hopefully this council won['t be run by senior staff but time will tell.

[twobits]

According to the headbangers FB page and the Penticton group page, they will be showing up at tonight's council meeting. Their mission is to demand a manual recount of votes. Apparently they don't trust the machines and feel that the election results were possibly rigged. Kevin Proteau posted the following comment on the Penticton group page. This is just one post of many. Will be interesting to see how the Mayor and Council will deal with this situation.

Kevin Proteau: Do you all you guys drink from the well. I would get the water tested. We have crooked elections a crooked council.as well as crooked over-paid staff, You know who are. but you probably know that already with the company you keep Rob.I see your boss Mark Ziebarth tried to run another slate up in Summerland didn't work this time As for the candidate I donated my time to that has not gone anywhere it will continue to foster through out Penticton because his campaign was for us a we thing something that we can all benefit from.,not just the boys and girls club.I am here to help expose expose the corruption and then those that care some of thew solutions

I am going to be buying shares in Alcan in the morning. I see tin foil being a hot commodity shortly.

[glassmaster]

I am going to be buying shares in Alcan in the morning. I see tin foil being a hot commodity shortly.[/quote]


Yup, his rants get 'out there'. I got a chuckle out of reading through his posts. Fluffy, the candidate that he was backing was Ryan Foster (the organic farmer). Apparently that whole group is having trouble accepting that he didn't get elected. I'm just curious if the Mayor and Council will give in their demands for a manual recount. Almost wanted to attend the council meeting just to see how this unfolds.

[twobits]

The correlation between "organic" and distrust of electronic voting machines conjures some humorous comic strip material.

[glassmaster]

Mr. Proteau has deleted many of his comments from the sites he was posting on. Somebody must have given him some good advice. Today he is reporting that his demand for a manual recount was denied. So, it looks like the election results will stand. Penticton's 2014 Election will be old news soon enough. Business as usual.