Alberta election agency taking heat for low voter turnout

Critics say Elections Alberta made it difficult to vote in Monday's provincial election and contributed to the record low turnout.

People have complained about computer glitches with the Elections Alberta website, not getting information mailed to their homes telling them where to vote and having problems registering at the polls.

"It's really a bit of a travesty. When you think about a mature democracy and we're still having problems with website management, where they rely on newspapers to provide polling information when many people don't get newspapers anymore," said political scientist Duane Bratt from Mount Royal College in Calgary.

"Those of us who wanted to vote managed to fight through the mess to get our information," wrotePolly Grotzki, one of dozens of people who phoned or e-mailed CBC Newsto voice their thoughts on the election, in which only 41 per cent of voters turned out.

"But for others who may have had limited access to telephones or internet or who were already lukewarm about voting, the lack of information may well have kept them away from the polls," Grotzki wrote.

The election went smoothly and they've had very little negative feedback from the public, deputy chief electoral officer Lori McKee-Jeske told CBC News Wednesday.

The voters lists were 90 per cent accurate for the two byelections last year, and the team of 15,000 election workers registered new voters as quickly as possible, she said.

McKee-Jeske also said every home in Alberta received cards telling people where to vote.

As for problems with their website, the technical issues are still being investigated.

"We did see some slowdowns in the morning, and we brought it up and it was working the way it was intended for the balance of the day," McKee-Jeske said.

She pointed to the fact that the website registered 100,000 hits between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. as an indication that people were able to get the information they needed.

Elections Alberta spent $300,000 on an ad campaign to encourage more people to vote, said McKee-Jeske. But ultimately the choice is up to the individual voters, she added.