John Bolton - Success! I Voted Option 2 - How Did It Go？

00:00:00.000 It's 20 minutes before 9 on October the 13th Tuesday morning and I'm heading over to my voting

00:00:10.040 area. Advance polls open up at 9 o'clock. I'm expecting a long lineup. We'll have to see when

00:00:15.440 I get there. I have to tell you it's kind of odd. The feeling I've got right now, I've been waiting

00:00:21.780 to do this for a while. I'm excited about it. I can hardly wait, you know, to put my mark on option

00:00:28.860 two. I think about the people who have been in this fight for a lot longer than I have. I think

00:00:35.660 of Corey Morgan, you know, who wrote a book on this. I've spoken to people over the last,

00:00:40.100 you know, several years now, a couple of years, I guess, who've been wanting something like this

00:00:44.700 for decades. I'm in a way, I'm a little bit nervous as well. I am. A little later on,

00:00:51.860 after I vote, I'm going to get my mother-in-law. She's 90. She's aware of what's at stake here.

00:00:58.860 A lot of her friends have been frightened.

00:01:01.280 They've been told they're going to lose their CPP.

00:01:03.200 She understands that's not true.

00:01:04.580 She's going to vote for option two.

00:01:05.840 She's voting yes on the first nine questions.

00:01:07.520 She understands them all.

00:01:09.200 So I'm taking her over there to her voting area,

00:01:12.540 probably help her out a little bit. 0.93

00:01:13.780 She's a little bit nervous about this.

00:01:15.280 As a 90-year-old woman, she's voted her whole life.

00:01:18.720 So what I'm going to do is head over to my polling station.

00:01:22.860 I expect a long lineup.

00:01:23.920 I have to see.

00:01:24.880 I'll try to compare it to recent provincial elections

00:01:27.900 and federal elections. Last time I was at election, I guess it would have been April 28th last year.

00:01:34.020 There may be 15 people in line. And obviously, I can't take my phone into the polling station,

00:01:38.760 so I'm going to have to leave it outside. But I'll do a report, maybe get a picture as I get

00:01:42.720 closer to the school I'm going to, and then do a report on my experience after I vote.

00:01:49.180 Here's something to think about if you're going out to advance polling. And it was something I

00:01:53.100 didn't really consider, because I always vote at the same place, but I usually go on regular voting

00:01:59.920 day, check the card that Elections Alberta sent you. Because as I was walking over to the school

00:02:05.680 I normally go to, I thought, I wonder if they're going to have a regular polling station there

00:02:10.920 today, and they're not. So I'm having to go a couple of blocks farther today to a church

00:02:15.680 in my neighborhood. But look at the back of the card and check out the advanced polling stations

00:02:20.740 in your area. So here I am at St. Albert the Great Church in Prestwick, which is just part of

00:02:26.360 Mackenzie Town. And this is my polling area. And I think if I go up the stairs here and walk around

00:02:33.000 the back, I will probably find the entrance for polling today. We'll follow these ladies around. 1.00

00:02:42.060 Don't turn around. No, don't. Don't be on camera. Don't turn around. There you go. And it's a bit

00:02:48.380 of a lineup here. Doesn't look like a lot of people, but they'll get us through pretty quickly

00:02:53.640 as long as people know about the 10 questions, because there's a lot to read. So I can't really

00:02:59.660 be in the polling area around here, I don't think, with a camera. I'll talk when I get out.

00:03:04.500 So I just finished voting. All in all, it took about 45 minutes. There were about 20 people in

00:03:10.920 line to get into the building. They had eight places to go get your ballots, 10 places to

00:03:17.920 actually vote. And in each lineup, I would say there was at least 10 people in each line.

00:03:26.340 So 80 people, 90 people waiting in line to get their ballots at each time. And those lines were

00:03:31.800 consistent. Regular flow of people coming in. Rather slow, first morning, people learning.

00:03:39.140 I did go up and got my ballots.

00:03:43.040 They gave me two ballot fives.

00:03:44.480 I noticed that when I was in the voting booth.

00:03:46.160 I gave one back.

00:03:46.980 And that was the second time that happened because when I was standing in line waiting to get my ballots, somebody else turned one in as well.

00:03:53.420 Now, the other thing that was interesting was they didn't ask me for ID.

00:03:59.240 And I was waiting for them to ask for my ID.

00:04:02.280 So I said, do you not need my ID?

00:04:03.740 And the woman said, no, I have the sheet that Elections Alberta sent you.

00:04:07.440 and another one of the people working there said no you have to ask for ID so that was something

00:04:12.960 that I noticed as well the ballots are all colored in a specific way some people took a long time and

00:04:20.700 and I actually spoke to people in line who said they knew all the questions and how they were

00:04:24.600 voting I was in and out of there in two minutes dropped all of the ballots in separate boxes

00:04:30.900 and they make sure that they're signed because I saw some people coming back that didn't sign

00:04:35.680 their ballots. So make sure your ballots are signed. Now, as far as the people that were there

00:04:41.500 in the room. Now, when I generally go to any event that has to do with independence, when I go to

00:04:48.820 any event, I usually have a number of people come up and say hi to me. Nobody that I could see

00:04:55.120 recognized me. But I'll tell you this, almost everybody in the room had gray hair. You could

00:05:02.900 feel the elbows up as you were walking through the room. It was almost palpable in the room.

00:05:07.700 Nobody was talking about the vote itself. You're not supposed to do that. But these were mostly

00:05:13.520 retired people. A lot of people, people with walkers, people who couldn't get up and down

00:05:18.280 the stairs. These are your forever Canadian people going out early this morning. It was very busy,

00:05:25.560 incredibly busy. I've never been to an advanced poll before, so I can't judge this compared to

00:05:30.220 a federal or provincial election. I generally go out on election day, but it was very busy today.

00:05:36.140 But I went in and out about 40 minutes on the very first morning right after nine o'clock and

00:05:40.540 got through quite quickly. But I think a lot of our people, meaning the option two people,

00:05:45.620 would be going out after work because they're working right now. The retirees who are sticking 0.93

00:05:49.780 with the Forever Canadian or the Forever Mediocrity people, they'll be going out on a day like today.

00:05:56.720 I'm wondering what it's going to be like over the next several days because a lot of people

00:05:59.680 wanted to get the vote done early. And there was a steady lineup going in constantly while I was

00:06:05.260 there. I think that's about it. I had my identification. I had my card. I was in and out

00:06:10.400 quickly. There were a few little glitches here and there that you could see, but overall not too bad.

00:06:15.800 And I'll see you at the legislature on Saturday. Looking forward to that. I think it starts at

00:06:20.340 two o'clock. I hope you can be there and keep positive, ladies and gentlemen. You know, the

00:06:26.180 The referendum in 95 in Quebec was decided in the final week.

00:06:30.800 We're still in the final week, even though voting has started.

00:06:33.580 So if you're out there and you can convince some people,

00:06:35.700 and you can sit down with people and talk to them and tell them why you want option two,

00:06:39.520 you can still do that right up until the 19th, the final day.

00:06:43.780 Really, the final day of voting.

00:06:45.120 Thanks for watching.

John Bolton - October 13, 2026

Success! I Voted Option 2 - How Did It Go？

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