Voting hours extended in several municipalities

High user volumes create issues and delays for citizens casting their ballots online

Various issues plagued polling stations across the province, causing several municipalities to modify voting hours on Monday.

The Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, the Town of Gravenhurst and the City of Greater Sudbury experienced severe enough issues to extend voting into Tuesday.

All three municipalities cited issues with the online voting system as the root cause.

On Facebook, the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury stated that voting issues were a result of a high volume of users.

“Our voting provider, Dominion Voting, tells us that due to extremely high volumes, some users are experiencing difficulties with both the telephone and internet voting systems.”

Many Facebook users responded with frustration, saying they had been trying for hours without luck. One user responded with humour.

“What are you running this on, a potato?” they asked. “I haven’t had to wait 15 minutes for a page to render since the ‘90s!”

All jokes aside, voting hours were extended after the delay proved significant.

The City of Greater Sudbury posted on Facebook that “all locations available today (Oct. 22) for in-person voting will be available for in-person voting tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.,” noting that online voting will be available overnight.

For the City of Pickering, it was the first year residents didn’t have the option to physically go out to polling stations and vote, rather the city only allowed for online and telephone voting. However, there were a few glitches and the city extended voting hours until 10 p.m. Monday to accommodate.

The following is a list of municipalities with modified voting hours (in alphabetical order):

Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury voting hours were extended until 8 p.m. Tuesday

City of Cambridge hours were extended until 9 p.m. Monday

Town of Gravenhurst voting hours were extended until 8 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 23)

Town of Innisfil hours were extended until 10 p.m. Monday

City of Kingston voting hours were extended until at least 9 p.m. Monday

City of Peterborough hours were extended to 9 p.m. Monday

City of Pickering hours were extended until 10 p.m. Monday

City of Greater Sudbury extended voting until 8 p.m. Tuesday