How many ballots is too many ballots?
This week on Balance of Power, Annalise Klingbeil and Leah Ward unpack the staggering logistics behind Alberta’s October referendum vote. With Elections Alberta preparing to print 45 million ballots and recruit 60,000 workers, they explore what happens when direct democracy collides with administrative reality.
First: the ballot problem. The hosts break down Elections Alberta’s largest recruitment drive ever, the challenge of hand-counting tens of millions of ballots, and why a referendum featuring ten questions — and potentially eleven — could test the limits of the province’s electoral machinery.
Then: the federal government’s new Online Harms Act. Can governments protect young people online without cutting them off from community and connection? And are policymakers focusing on the platforms, the algorithms, or the wrong problem entirely?
Plus, for Patreon subscribers: environmental politics and persuasion. From Water Not Coal to Don’t Go Breaking My Parks, Annalise and Leah dig into why some campaigns break through with audiences who don’t see themselves as environmentalists, and why “this, not that” can be more powerful than another campaign built around “no.”
Referendums, ballot chaos, water politics, online harms, political organizing, and the challenge of governing in an age of overload.
Welcome to Balance of Power.
Mentioned in this episode:
Shannon's thread on Social Media
https://bsky.app/profile/sphillipsab.bsky.social/post/3mnwfgkbm4k2f
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