Montreal City Weblog

Kate 19:39 on 2021-10-31 Permalink Reply  

• YUL514 22:17 on 2021-10-31 Permalink

  There are stories of poll mismanagement in CDN-NDG, I’m assuming the media will pick up on it tomorrow. My in laws were turned away today because their polling station had, get this…run out of ballots. I’d like to know who’s running Elections Montreal, what with all the Trumpesque tactics of Valerie and what not. No polling stations in some of the Jewish Seniors residences in the Snowdon area. This to go along with voting down the option of mail in voting. I wonder why Valerie didn’t want citizens (seniors) mailing in their ballots, hmmm….what could be the reason?!

• Kate 22:38 on 2021-10-31 Permalink

  YUL514, Elections Montreal is a nonpartisan body. It is not run by Projet Montréal.

• YUL514 23:14 on 2021-10-31 Permalink

  I’m aware it is nonpartisan but you shouldn’t be running out of ballots, too many things have happened to make me suspicious. As I said, who voted against mail in voting and why do you think they did? The answer is obvious.

• mare 23:51 on 2021-10-31 Permalink

  I went yesterday at around 19h and there were 9 volunteers (or are they paid?) and no voters. They were happy to see me and took their time to fold the ballot for mayor, lots of candidates on that one. I brought my own pen —and refused the pencil they gave me— to fill some boxes. I did my best, we don’t have incumbents in our borough, so new people. I’ve only seen the Project Montreal councillor candidate going door to door, and she seemed nice.

• Kate 08:27 on 2021-11-01 Permalink

  mare, poll workers are paid, they’re not volunteers. I’ve done this work in the past (at all three levels) and would gladly have worked this year for the federal and municipal elections except that they didn’t have a vaccine mandate for their workers.

• Kate 08:31 on 2021-11-01 Permalink

  YUL514, you’re changing your argument. Someone at Elections Montreal may have messed up – may have miscalculated the number of ballots needed in one location. It’s not a conspiracy.

• Jonathan 08:41 on 2021-11-01 Permalink

  According to Elections Montréal, a lot of senior residences, where they usually set up advanced polls I am told, refused for this election. Maybe because of the lack of vaccine mandate?

• John B 09:36 on 2021-11-01 Permalink

  I realize that seniors residences are often used for voting because they give seniors easy access to vote, but I wonder if we should really be giving one voting bloc, especially one that tends to favour inaction and outdated policies, an advantage in getting to poles.

  Perhaps if there’s going to be voting in seniors residences there should also be voting in university dorms, CEGEPS, youth centres, and/or CPEs, during the week, at drop-off & pickup time.

• Joey 10:05 on 2021-11-01 Permalink

  Advance polling is supposed to be for people who can’t make it during the regular polling days/hours, isn’t it? We’ve come to treat them as “regular” polling days but that’s probably not how the folks managing the election approach them. To complain that there weren’t enough ballots to handle the people who wanted to avoid regular* election day lines is a bit much, IMO.

  I say ‘regular’ when in fact Elections Montreal already expanded regular polls to include a second day to accommodate voters…

• EmilyG 11:45 on 2021-11-01 Permalink

  I voted in an advance poll on Saturday.
  I moved recently, so I’d made a mad dash to City Hall a few weeks ago to get on the list of people able to vote, as the deadline was a few hours away to get on the list and I hadn’t realized it.
  On Saturday, I went to a local school where the advance polling station was. It took a long time. When I got into the gym where voting takes place, a slow worker took a very long time to find me on the electors’ list. It might or might not have been because I got on the list at the last minute (though my name was between my dad’s and my sister’s, who had voted earlier in the day and had long been on the electors’ list.)
  And while they were trying to find me on the list, I had to go with someone who was standing near a worker who was wearing her mask on her chin (and nobody said anything about that.)

  It was a very frustrating experience, but at least I got it overwith.