The City of Saskatoon has seen an increase in the number of people casting an advance ballot in the civic election.
Nearly 20,000 people voted for mayor, city council and school boards during early voting.
However, long lineups were reported at many advance polling stations, with some voters saying they had to wait an hour or more.
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A former city councillor says given the COVID-19 pandemic, the city should have offered more availability for voters.
“The very heart and fundamentals of democracy is people getting out to vote. It is incumbent upon the government to make voting as easy and convenient as possible,” Tiffany Paulsen said.
“In the case of the municipal 2020 election, there have been substantial failures here.”
She added with long lines reported for advanced polls, people likely won’t wait in a line on election day, with Environment Canada forecasting a minimum of 20 cm of snow over the weekend and temperatures falling to a high of -10 degrees on Monday.
“Practically speaking because of COVID-19, voters are being forced to line up outside of buildings. They’re just not going to do that in the middle of a snow storm. It’s not fair to ask them to do that,” Paulsen added.
The 19,666 total advance votes account for 9.3 per cent of the approximate 216,000 eligible voters in the city.
In the 2016 election, advance voting ballots accounted for 7.5 per cent of all voters.
The city also sent out around 12,500 mail-in ballots, after around 4,500 applications were denied.
Mail-in ballots have to be received by 8 p.m. Monday.
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