Voters in south London, Ont., hoping to beat long lines at polling stations came out on top as Canadians cast their ballots for the 44th general election.
Canada’s first general election during the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to bring longer-than-usual delays for voters and by mid-day Monday, long lineups were already seen at several polling stations in Toronto.
Polls in London, along with every other place under the Eastern time zone, opened at 9:30 a.m.
Throughout the region, reports emerged of long lines forming before polling stations opened, but about an hour later, things appeared to have cleared, for the time being, outside of sites in downtown, Wortley Village and in the south end.
Late Monday morning, Global News spoke with voters casting their ballots at the Best Western Plus Lamplighter Inn and Conference Centre, a hotel in the federal riding of London-Fanshawe that’s been repeatedly used as a polling station.
“The lines are long, but the process is choreographed to accommodate that reality,” said Virginia Caldwell, who came to cast her vote just after 11 a.m. “It just goes along like a little stream. It’s very nice and the (Elections Canada) people are doing an excellent job.”
Reid Meerburg arrived to the Lamplighter Inn just after he finished work, hoping to fulfill his civic duty before heading home for the day.
He shared similar praise for Elections Canada staff, adding that the process was well organized and made for a good first pandemic-voting experience.
“You know what, I think I like (voting in a pandemic) better than normal, there’s less line ups,” Meerburg said.
While they expected a long wait, Ginny Slade and James Bryce found the opposite when they arrived to cast their ballots.
“It probably will get busier towards the evening, you know, people coming back from work, et cetera,” Bryce said.
Slade added the pandemic-related protocols didn’t present much of a challenge either.
“I wear my mask eight hours a day, so for me, I’m used to it,” she said.
“We were in and out,” said Kelly Robertson, who arrived with Dylan Dubois just after 12 p.m.
“I’m just here on my lunch hour, so that just kind of speaks to the fact that there aren’t really long lines, so it’s very well-organized,” Dubois added.
Londoners, and all other Canadians in the Eastern time zone, have until 9:30 p.m. to cast their ballot.
Elections Canada suggests voters avoid peak times, such as the post-work evening rush, in order to avoid potential delays.
The need to find sites with enough room to support physical distancing has also led, in part, to a drop in voting sites and individual polls in various ridings.
In a document sent to Global News in early September, the biggest drop in election-day polls was seen in London North Centre, which is holding only 172 polls on Monday, down from 211 in the 43rd general election. The riding also dropped to 44 voting sites on election this year, down from 54.
While London West lost a single election-day poll, its number of voting sites dropped to 48, down from 64 during the 43rd general election.
Elgin-Middlesex-London fell to 38 voting sites, down from 47 in 2019, and lost a single election-day poll.
London-Fanshawe was virtually unchanged, losing only one voting site while maintaining its number of individual polls.
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