It took one Richmond resident two tries and over an hour of waiting to cast a ballot in advance polls on Friday.
Mary Miller said she went to vote at the Minoru Centre for Active Living around 10 a.m. on Friday – the first day of advance polls – and arrived to find a “long line that extended from the front of the building and around the side.”
While people in lines for other polling stations at the centre were being let in, Miller said she gave up after 45 minutes of waiting with no movement in her lineup for polling station 605.
Elections Canada told her the wait was due to COVID-19, said Miller.
When she returned at 3 p.m. to try again, Miller said the line was “divided into different polling stations and each line up had a maximum of 10 people.”
“After 35 minutes only two people from polling station 605 had progressed inside the building and another four voters, unable to wait, had left,” she said.
“In over 50 years of voting I have never had this experience,” said Miller. “Long lineups that move in an orderly fashion are not an issue; people can accept the wait if they know the system in place is well managed.”
Elections Canada said it was aware there were long lineups at certain times during the day, however, it was “not the case at any location for the whole day.”
“We apologize to those who found themselves waiting in (the lineups),” said Andrea Marantz, B.C. spokesperson for Elections Canada.
She explained polls are assigned by address, so if a number of people from the same few blocks arrive at a similar time there will be long lines for that poll station.
“The poll worker at each numbered table will only have the list of electors from their own poll – so it’s not a simple matter of letting people stand in the shortest line,” Marantz said, noting Friday was also the first day for many poll workers and things will move more quickly as workers become more familiar with their task.
“There are also all the COVID health and safety measures to consider, and the need to keep physical distance between people,” she said.
However, she said in some cases certain polls were spilt – meaning electors in a single poll were sent to two tables instead of just one, in order to make the process go more quickly.
Advance voting will continue until Monday, Sept. 13, with poll locations open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Advance poll locations for Richmond's two ridings can be found on residents' voter information cards which arrived in the mail, or online at elections.ca.
