Watch above: Mark McAllister looks into problems at advance polling stations.
TORONTO – Non-existent voter cards, names absent from the voter list and problems at the polls: thus are the complaints from residents during the first week of advance voting in Toronto.
Marilyn Kneller didn’t get a voter card and her name was not on the voter list. She’s been living at the same address for 25 years and has always received a voter list – except for this year.
“I can’t understand why I wouldn’t have received it; nothing has changed in my life, except for who I want to vote for,” she said.
She called 311, who confirmed she wasn’t on the voter list. So she went to city hall Thursday afternoon around lunchtime to vote. She saw two lines: an empty one for people with a voter card, and another with 30 people in it for those left off the list.
READ MORE: Where can I vote?
The city receives a preliminary list of voters from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) every election year, city clerk Ulli Watkiss said in an interview.
Bureaucrats go through the list checking for errors and trying to address issues ahead of time.
She couldn’t explain why people weren’t on the voters list. She did point out, however, the city took great measures to try and get people to check for these problems earlier in the year.
“Voters could go online and take a look at whether or not their name was on the list. That happens early in the year and we were advertising that,” Watkiss said. “So it’s been out there for a while now and we really encourage people to take note of these things.”
But, she said, it’s really not a big deal if your name isn’t on the voters list.
“Come out to polling station and cast your vote,” she said. “Do not worry about whether you were not initially on the list or not. We will make sure that you can vote.”
Torontonians don’t have to be on the voters list to vote. Instead, they can bring identification showing their name and qualifying Toronto address.
– With files from Mark McAllister
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