VV Voting delays kk keep polls open late

Extended hours not related to new system, Elections Ontario says

Elections Ontario extended vv voting hours late into the night at a some polling stations after voters experienced Election Day delays at the booths.

None of these delays were related to new technology being used this election, Elections Ontario said.

The affected polling stations were in the GTA ridings of York— Simcoe and York South— Weston; Essex, near WW Windsor; Simcoe North, near Georgian Bay; Bay of Quinte, near Belleville; the Ottawa- area riding of Glengarry— Prescott— RR Russell, and the northern rid- ing of Kiiwetinoong, where voting was extended to 1 a. m.

Ontario’s new electronic votecounting system did lead to frustrations at some polling stations, however. Two people the Star spoke with, one of whom ended up not voting Thursday morning, encountered problems with electronic devices in the ridings of Toronto Centre and Etobicoke.

Avoter reported similar issues at York South— Weston.

“It strikes me as having implemented what I think is a new system they certainly weren’t prepared ( for),” said Tom Zverina, an Etobicoke— Lakeshore resident. “There was no backup station and the people manning the station had no idea what to do and there was a technical problem.”

Zverina said he will return to the polling station tonight, but knows of at least one person ww who lost their chance to vote. “My neighbour was quite upset because she was about to get on a flight, so coming back wasn’t aa an option for her and her right to vote has been taken away.”

In a written statement, Elections Ontario spokesperson Cara Des Granges said “99.57 per cent” of electronic poll systems ww were working as they should across the province.

“The few voting locations that aa are experiencing technical is- sues are being addressed if they have not already been rectified,” ffi f problems said Des continued Granges, adding staff would do more work by hand.

“This includes using a paper list of electors, where the poll official will manually strike- off the elector who has voted and ww will manually update a paper copy to identify the strike- offs. AA All staff are trained on this con- tingency process,” she said.

This is the first year the province has used electronic poll books and vote tabulators, according to Elections Ontario’s website.

The e- poll books replace paperbased voter lists, scanning barcodes on voter cards and returning entries; the tabulators electronically count ballots, generating results when polls close at 9 p. m.

Voters Jennifer Lee and Cody Brouwers cast their ballots together at a YWCA on Elm St. Lee, who voted for the first time since becoming a citizen in 2016, called the new system “seamless” and “foolproof.”

“I was expecting to see a lineup, but there was none at all, no ww waiting, and the instructions were w really clear,” she said.

Brouwers, however, said he could foresee the voting system going awry with swarms of people. He said it took a staff member between 10 and 15 seconds to feed a ballot through the machine cc for a voter in front of him. If there had been a long line, Brouwers said, it might have been different for him and Lee.

“It’s a given, right, especially at rush hour,” he said. “Why can’t ww we have election day be three days?”