Allyson Sterling went to exercise her civic duty and vote in the upcoming federal election this past Monday. But as she and her friend got out of their car at about 7:30 that evening at the Merritt Civic Centre, someone who was on their way out told them they were unable to vote because they had run out of ballots.
“We were like, seriously? How does that even happen?” said Sterling. Incredulous, the two went in to see for themselves. “A lady with a clipboard came over and greeted us and told us about the situation,” she continued.
She said the lady told them they could come to their homes and let them vote at a later date, but they were both leery of that option. She said they asked questions about the security and what the process for that would be like, but they ultimately said they were uncomfortable voting that way. “[Our questions] were answered but I didn’t think answered very well,” she said.
On their way out they ran into a few more people coming in to vote, and passed the message along — no more ballots.
According to media reports, it was one of the biggest turnouts for advanced polls ever across Canada, but it seems here in Merritt, Elections Canada wasn’t ready for the tide of voters eager to cast their ballot. The reason for that differs depending on which party you ask.
Harry Lali is the NDP area coordinator for Nicola Valley and Highland Valley on behalf of the candidate, Angelique Wood. He said the Conservative Party is to blame, not Elections Canada.
“They’re the ones who made massive cuts to Elections Canada, and now we are seeing screwup after screwup,” he said. “There’s chaos at Elections Canada. I don’t necessarily fault Elections Canada, and I don’t fault the people who were actually working at the Merritt station here. These are all good people, they all live in Merritt, and they were just trying to do their job. They can’t do their job if they’re not given enough polling booths, for instance — there were only two polling booths inside — and secondly not enough ballots for people to be able to vote.”
The cuts Lali is referring to are the eight per cent cut to the agency’s budget, announced back in 2013. The cuts amount to a loss of $7.5 million annually.
Lali said he first received a call at 7 p.m. on Monday evening, and he arrived at the polling station shortly after to see for himself. Sterling said she saw him arrive shortly after she did.
“I saw with my own eyes about 15 to 20 people that had shown up, but were not allowed to vote,” he said. “The first day should have shown it’s going to be a massive turnout.”
Lali said when he arrived he was told by the returning officer in charge of the polling station that they were only given 250 ballots for that day.
He said he’d heard reports that the same thing happened in Revelstoke. “If it’s happening here, and it’s happening in Revelstoke, then it’s happening across Canada,” he said.
He argued there should be more polling stations. “We have more polling stations in a provincial riding, which is about a third the size of a federal riding. They only have something like eight or nine polls on election day, where people can go vote, in this entire riding of 87,000 people,” he said.
Conservative MP Dan Albas called the situation “unacceptable.”
He also said the claim that funding cuts to Elections Canada were responsible was outrageous. “Elections Canada has statutory funding under the Canada Elections Act,” he said. “What that means is that as an independent agency, Elections Canada can withdraw whatever funds it deems necessary to carry out an election directly from the consolidated revenue fund. What has actually happened is that our government increased the number of advanced polling days, in the hopes to increase voter turnout.”
He said many polling stations were unable to keep up with increased demand.
“As a candidate I’m deeply sympathetic to voters who encountered long wait periods or may have had other challenges waiting to vote.” He said he will follow up to find out more details as to how this happened, and “make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
As for Sterling, she said she has mixed feelings about the experience. She lives in Merritt, and plans to be back to vote on Oct. 19, when the general election is held. The friend she went with over the weekend, however, lives in Quilchena, and will be away on Oct. 19. She said she’s not sure what she’s going to do.
But Sterling, who identified herself as First Nations, also sees a silver lining.
“It means a lot of people are voting, and that makes me feel great that people are excercising that right,” she said. “I don’t know that that’s ever happened here before and within my realm of community it’s really great because First Nations people are getting out and voting.”
Elections Canada did not return the Herald’s calls requesting comment.
