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Chief elections officer job gets political

July 21st, 2011 · 48 Comments

The latest scuffle is over the naming of deputy city clerk Janice MacKenzie to be Chief Elections Officer, instead of having the City Clerk (in this case, Marg Coulson) as Chief Elections Officer, as is the tradition.

NPA and candidate Mike Klassen setting out their case in news releases here and there this morning; Jeff Lee’s blog post on same giving some additional background.

The thing that puzzles me is why the effort of specifically changing the title. In the past, it has typically been the deputy clerk who really runs the elections. Even though Syd Baxter was the city clerk for years and nominally the chief elections officer, it was first Paul Hancock and then Marg Coulson, the deputies, who were always the go-to people.

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