Vancouver voters complain of bottlenecks, glitchy ballot readers at voting places

As Vancouverites head to the polls for the 2018 civic election, some have turned to social media to report long lines and problems with ballot reading machines.

In a bid to prevent voter congestion, the city posted updates to Twitter throughout the day with lists of voting places with high and low turnout.

Vancouver voters are permitted to vote at any of the more than 100 polling places in the city.

However that wasn’t enough to blunt criticism from some disgruntled voters, many of whom pointed the finger at the city’s digital ballot reading machines.

The city said its tabulation machines were working normally, and that the longer, 22-inch ballots take a bit longer than normal to process. It added that the process can take longer if a ballot is rejected on the first pass through the machine, and asked voters to be patient.

However, while voters at a number of polling stations reported long waits and bottlenecks, it’s not yet clear if turnout will be any higher than in previous years.

According to the city, more than 58,000 people had voted by 2 p.m. —  halfway through the voting day — while 48,000 people cast advance ballots for a total of 106,000.

Back in 2014, when just 44 per cent of voters turned out, 181,707 ballots were cast.

Polls close at 8 p.m.