Regarding your Editorial "A dismal turnout" and letter to the editor "Denied a vote" in the October 31 edition of the Humboldt Journal.Our elections over the decades have become dictatorial from the word go. Firstly, an enumerator comes to your door and asks for the names and addresses of your dwelling's occupants who are of legal voting age. You are not offered the option of which polling station you can vote at. Case in point: I reside exactly seven kilometres from my closest polling station in federal and provincial elections. Since the early 1990s, I have been told to drive triple that distance in the opposite direction to vote. I know of a neighbour of mine who resides equal distance from either polling station who drives past my residence and votes at my closest poll. I am not even afforded the option to vote at my closest, nor even second-closest poll all because someone with no sense of distance arbitrarily draws a line on a map and forces you to vote somewhere. That is to a degree dictatorship phase 1. You used to have just your mailed voter postcard to be able to vote. Now you have to have a plethora of identification just to get a ballot. And even then you can be denied your right to vote. That is additional dictatorship. Once your representative takes their chair in whatever level of government, you are dictated to not democratically asked. Do we have a democracy? Very thinly, yes. However, it is slipping down the slippery slope to total dictatorship.And everyone is wondering why we have dismal turnouts on election days.
