Declined at the polls

There have been several letters in The Record regarding the low voter turnout in the recent municipal election. The real story, which has not been reported in The Record, is that hundreds and potentially thousands of voters were not allowed to vote. Their names were removed from the voters lists, they did not receive voting cards in the mail, and some who turned out to vote but who did not have a second piece of identifying documentation (besides driver’s licence) were prevented from doing so.

This was true of the hundreds of inhabitants of 310 and 560 Queen St. S. beside Victoria Park.

My wife and I, who have resided at 310 Queen S. since prior to the last election and are therefore not new to that address, had to apply to be added to the voters list. While at the polling station we witnessed a young woman being turned away because the only ID she had brought with her was her driver’s licence. “But look!” she said. “This is photo ID: that’s me!” It didn’t matter. She was turned away.

In the U.S. this would be called vote suppression.

Steve Higgins

Kitchener