by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Somewhere in the back halls of the provincial bureaucracy, the education mandarins decided that those without children studying in English but who want to vote in English school board elections have to fill out and sign a special form. Voters who don't will be eligible to vote only in the French board elections. So unless you currently have a child in the English system or fill out a registration form with the relevant school board, consider yourself disenfranchised in Quebec's English school board elections November 16.

Five years ago, a record 40 per cent of eligible Montrealers voted in the English elections. In comparison, the French side attracted only a nine per cent turnout. Back then, those not on the English list but wishing to cast their vote in the English system could get on it instantly at the polls by swearing their eligibility on a bible. The paperwork now required to vote in the English system has many livid.

"It is terribly undemocratic to say the least," says English Montreal School Board commissioner and candidate Joseph Petraglia. "The government is going out of their way to restrict our right to vote." Petraglia points out that property owners - and, indirectly, their tenants - pay school tax, and that education is one of the biggest chunks of Quebec's tax expenditures. "So we should have a system that welcomes all voters, but instead the government is going out of their way to restrict our right to vote," he says.

He recommends that school board elections be held alongside the municipal elections. "Some say it would be confusing, but we'd save money and get a better turnout. I'd be willing to have some people slightly confused in exchange for a higher vote turnout," he says.

One candidate suggests there's additional nefarious abuse inherent in the new voting order. "It opens the system up to fraud," says Giuliano D'Andrea, who has long campaigned against the EMSB brass for closing many former Catholic schools. D'Andrea sees organized political circles manipulating the election of the 23 EMSB commissioners, who are paid around $8,000 a year but control an annual budget around $200-million.

"The board elections are an extension of power politics with different factions getting together to try and control the boards," D'Andrea says. "If you can organize to get 300 people to come out, you can get your man elected because the vote spread is so small."

D'Andrea suspects that political backroom dealers will persuade voters to cast their vote in the board where their vote is most needed, regardless of whether they're English or French. D'Andrea notes that candidates could declare until Oct. 19 but voters have until Oct. 30 to decide whether to vote in the French or English elections. So if a candidate in the French board elections is acclaimed without any opposition, a voter in that ward could instead jump into the English board election. "An organized group can flood an area with thousands of voters that have no participation in the English system," D'Andrea says. "All voters have to do is sign a little paper. It takes five seconds and you don't even have to prove you're a resident of the area."