Long queues frustrate early voters

Long lineups at polling stations frustrated a number of Canadians as advance voting began across the country on Friday, but Elections Canada said volumes were within normal ranges.

In Hamilton, Mark Cripps waited 90 minutes to cast his ballot and said polling staff seemed overwhelmed. “All the lineups were huge,” said the 48-year-old. “It didn’t seem like they were prepared or they didn’t expect this many people to come out.”

Everyone in Cripps’s line had to go through one official, who asked for each voter’s name and address before getting a signature, he said. “I saw people leave. Tons of people leave.”

Talia Johnson decided not to wait when a polling official told her it would take her up to 40 minutes to vote at her Ottawa advance polling station.

“There were a lot of people,” she said. “In the past when I used advance polls the waits haven’t been very long at all.”

At Ottawa city hall, Christine Clark, 93, who has voted in every election since she was 18, was able to sit down when someone in line agreed to hold her place. “Old age has its advantages,” Clark said.

Some voters used the occasion to call attention to the niqab issue, which has come to dominate the campaign. A Quebec man went to a polling station in Dorval dressed as a clown.

“Truly sad that I can vote to elect a Canadian prime minister without having to show my face and prove my identity, said Rafik Hanna.

In Cap-Rouge, near Quebec City, a woman cast her ballot while wearing a potato sack on her head.

Spokeswoman Natalie Babin-Dufresne said Elections Canada had not received reports of any significant problems by Friday afternoon and noted that polling officials were able to call in extra staff when needed.

“It’s great to see electors out there on the first day,” she said. “Our best advice is the same advice we give throughout, to come prepared.”

Babin-Dufresne noted that voting wasn’t expected to be a lengthier process due to the recent changes to the election law.

The law requires voters to have a piece of photo identification with an address, or two pieces of identification with one of them bearing the voter’s current address. It also ends the practice of vouching, in which a properly identified voter can vouch for the identity of someone lacking ID.

Advance polling runs until Monday.