Officials will show off a number of voting instruments in Calgary that are intended to streamline the election process and help reduce the number of mistakes that can occur at the polls.

One of the new devices, electronic poll books, help streamline the voting process by adopting a new process to check voter information.

The laptops have a devoted, secure, connection to Election Alberta's servers so, once their voter information card is scanned by the poll book, the voter can instantly verify their information and obtain their ballot to vote.

"The other thing that it does for us is it's allowing us to provide a list of electors who have voted to the candidates in real time. So they are going to find out who voted throughout the day and that's really going to improve how timely we can be," said Pamela Renwick, directior of operations and communications with Elections Alberta.

The poll books also frees voters to go to any station they wish on Election Day.

The technologies also include vote tabulators, instruments that optically scan ballots and record the results, allowing for instant results within minutes of the closure of the polls.

Tabulators also cut down on the number of mistakes on ballots, including blank ballots and those with more than one selection.

"The workers have to make an interpretation about voter intent on these. That takes time and there's changes, of course. That's why you see the differences between official, unofficial and, potentially, judicial recounts because of that interpretation," Renwick said.

The tabulator help this because it takes an image when it is submitted and then displays a notification if there are any issues with the ballot.

"It allows the elector to go and get a replacement ballot and correct that. Because usually that's a mistake. If they really did want to cast it that way, they can, but we want to make sure that everyone's one vote is counted."

A voter assist terminal is a device that offers electors with physical impairments that would otherwise stop them from voting the ability to cast their ballot independently.

That equipment offers three different ways to cast a ballot:

  • hand-held controller – controller with large buttons and markings in braille that allow people with low vision or difficulty reading to cast a vote
  • paddles assistive device – device with a pair of paddles that can be used by different parts of the body. The user navigates through candidates with a blue paddle and selects a candidate with a red paddle
  • sip and puff device – a voter who does not have the use of his or her arms and legs can use a straw to puff and cycle through candidates and sip to make a selection

Renwick says there is a lot of voting technology available and the upcoming Calgary-Lougheed byelection made of the perfect opportunity to test some of those devices.

"The tabulator is very common. It's being used across Canada as well as in a lot of the municipal elections. I think the electronic poll book is something that is quite advanced that we're able to trial."

Some voters may be concerned about the use of electronic means to cast their vote, but Renwick says there is nothing to worry about.

"These tabulators are completely standalone. They are not connected to the Internet in any way. They are plugged into the wall, they have a battery back up on them and what's actually provided all the programming on them is a memory card."

She says they are currently testing all the programming on the tabulators in the days leading up to Election Day and will test them again after Election Night.

"We want to make sure that through the election, they continue to have the same settings and nothing has changed."

Renwick says there is an option for workers if everything else fails.

"The ballots that are submitted are still paper ballots. The box that the tabulator is sitting on is still a ballot box, so we will be keeping all of those ballots and if need be, if we needed to manually recount them by hand, that could be completed."

Elections Alberta says that the new techniques will all be put in place in time for the byelection on December 14.