A City of Burnaby politician says advance polling rules are not only potentially discouraging to Burnaby South voters, they could be suppressing them.
On Saturday, Burnaby city Councillor Colleen Jordan went with her usual group to the South Burnaby Royal Canadian Legion for the Saturday meat draw.
She brought her voting cards with her, as did others because an advance polling station for the Burnaby South federal byelection was next door at the Poppy Residences’ community room. She and the others thought they could just “pop by” – making things simpler for them.
Included in the group was Coun. Nick Volkow, but when he went to vote he was turned away, Jordan said, and told he could only vote at the advance polling station listed on his voter card.
Jordan looked up the advance polling station on her card and it was Seaforth school, which is seven kilometres away from her home. But there is another advance polling station only three kilometres from her home.
“Ridiculous,” Jordan told the NOW. “Someone in Ottawa clearly just drew circles on a map that made no sense.”
Jordan tweeted out her frustration on Saturday night.
“Burnaby voters are used to voting being encouraged, not suppressed,” she tweeted.
“People are used to voting any place as they do in provincial and local elections,” she said.
Advance polling continues until Monday. The byelection date is Feb. 25.
These are the candidates for Burnaby South, according to Elections Canada:
- Terry Grimwood, independent
- Richard Lee, Liberal Part of Canada
- Jay Shin, Conservative Party of Canada
- Jagmeet Singh, New Democratic Party of Canada
- Laura-Lynn Thompson, People’s Party of Canada
- Valentine Wu, independent
More information about advance voting and the locations can be found at elections.ca.
