Long lineups for advanced voting
In Ottawa and across Eastern Ontario, people waited in long lineups to vote on the first of four days of advance polls for the Oct. 19 federal election.
At Ottawa City Hall, voters waited up to an hour and 20 minutes to cast a ballot in the riding of Ottawa Centre. “Utterly absurd,” said Betty Green, who waited at the back of a line of about 40 people. Green said she usually votes at her apartment building but the poll location was moved this year.
Christine Clark, 93, came to city hall because the poll in her Cooper Street apartment that she voted at in past elections had also been moved. Clark said she has voted in every election since she was 18.
Someone in line agreed to hold her spot so she could sit for the hour-long wait to vote.
“Old age has its advantages,” Clark said.
At the Ron Kolbus Lakeside Centre in Ottawa West-Nepean, lineups stretched nearly to the door at mid-afternoon. The advance poll opened at noon “and it has not stopped,” said poll supervisor Rick Caverley. By 2:45 p.m., 230 people had voted, Caverley said. “I worked it out to one-and-a-quarter votes per minute.”
At the Scouts Canada headquarters on Baseline Road, one couple, who declined to give their names, said they encountered “ridiculous” lineups when they arrived to vote at 1 p.m. They returned about 4 p.m. and were able to cast their ballots with minimal delay.
Those scenes were the norm on the first day of advance voting, said Joan O’Neill, a liaison officer who oversees 15 electoral districts in Eastern Ontario and visited advance polls in Kingston, Brockville and Spencerville Friday.
“It certainly was very busy everywhere I went. I have been hearing from all of my returning officers and they are all reporting very heavy voting today.”
At advance polls, a poll clerk must write down electors’ names and addresses, and get them to sign, which slows the process, O’Neill said.
“A lot of my returning officers very quickly got second poll clerks out to the polling places where people were reporting they were busier than anticipated,” she said. “That did help with the lineups.”
The advance polls will remain open Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and many will have two poll clerks available from the start, O’Neill said.
O’Neill said turnout is typically heavy on the first day of advance voting. “I sense it may have been heightened this year by the fact that it’s Thanksgiving weekend and people who are going away wanted to make sure they got their voting done before they left town.”
Returning officers reported no significant problems with people lacking the ID to vote, O’Neill said.
In 2011, seniors, students and the homeless could vote by showing their voter identification cards. But this time, everyone is required to show either one piece of government-issued photo ID or two pieces of ID, at least one of which must show the voter’s address.