Update: Voting hours at four of Vancouver's 117 voting locations have been extended.
Vancouver's chief election officer has directed that Killarney Community Centre will remain open a further 15 minutes to 8:15 p.m., Britannia Community Centre and Oakridge Centre voting stations will remain open a further 30 minutes to 8:30 p.m., and Hastings Elementary Community School will remain open a further 45 minutes to 8:45 p.m.
"In four voting stations today where there was a very heavy turnout, there was a short period of time during which voters had to wait for ballots to be restocked. The Chief Election Officer has authority to extend the voting period if there has been an adjournment of proceedings at any voting place," the City of Vancouver said in a press release.
The Vancouver Charter provides that at the close of polls (8 p.m.) everyone that is in line either inside or outside the voting station will be permitted to vote. The poll will close when the last person has voted, no matter how long that takes.
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VANCOUVER — Many polling stations in Metro Vancouver saw a high voter turnout on Saturday, with at least three centres running out of ballots and some voters waiting in lineups for up to 40 minutes.
On Saturday afternoon, voters at Britannia community centre were complaining about being sent away because there were no more ballots. At 4 p.m., Vancouver resident Binny van Bergen said they were scrambling to find somewhere else to vote.
“People were leaving in droves. It’s unfair. I think this might even be contested.,” she said. But half an hour later, city spokesman Tobin Postma said new ballots had been delivered to Britannia.
Voters at Britannia had to wait "20 to 30 minutes" before ballots were restocked, Postma said. Oakridge Centre also ran out of ballots Saturday afternoon, but the station was restocked within 20 minutes.
Officials also ran out of ballots in the late afternoon at Lord Roberts Annex in Vancouver’s West End. Twitter users complained that turned away voters might not go to another polling station.
“Voters are dropping like flies waiting for ballots here at Lord Roberts annex, many probably won’t seek out the next polling station,” tweeted Arabella, while another Twitter user Rhinny questioned whether they would be bringing more ballots. The city of Vancouver responded on the social media site, saying, “The Elections office is aware and ballots are being sent over ASAP.” St. Helen’s church in West Point Grey also ran out of ballots.
The city then followed up asking people to be patient as they supply more ballots to the centres.
“We’re restocking ballots as fast as possible at all locations running low! Please bear with us.” the city tweeted shortly before 5:30 p.m.
At many stations in Metro Vancouver, voters were waiting in long lineups in the cold, but sunny weather to vote. As polls opened at 8 a.m., people crowded into some centres, such as the West End, where more than 50 people were waiting to get in to the polling station at King George high school, according to registration official Louanne Rhine.
“It’s been really steady but the lineups are moving quite quickly,” she said, at around 10 a.m. “We had a bit of a lull but now it’s super busy again.”
The queue to vote took about 20 minutes.
At the Carnegie Centre, in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where many people in the lineup said homelessness was one of their main campaign issues, an election organizer said it had been “non stop” all morning with a lengthy queue continuing well into the afternoon.
There’s a lot of activism in the Downtown Eastside and people are passionate about these issues, said resident Dave MacLean, a former homeless man, who has lived in the Woodward’s community housing for the past five years.
He said his main campaign issue was homelessness and he thought the city had done “a heck of a job” with Vancouver’s homeless problem.
“When I came down here from Surrey five years ago there were masses of people sleeping on Hastings Street. It was a shot to my system,” he said. “I think (the city) did an excellent job ... but you can never end homelessness.”
MacLean said no matter who wins the election he hopes that helping homeless people find accommodation will be a priority for the city.
Fifty-year-old Will Smith, a self-described avid cyclist who lives in the Main and Terminal area, said his concern was making sure the next government ends the practice of keeping whales in captivity.
There was some controversy during the campaign because there was no advance polling station in the Downtown Eastside. Earlier this month a resident of the area launched a complaint with the Human a Rights Tribunal. Mark Handley said the locations for the advance polls were too far away from The Downtown Eastside, where many of the city’s homeless and poor live. He argued poor people were being discriminated against, with preferential treatment given to wealthier people living on Vancouver’s west side.
Elsewhere in Metro Vancouver, Twitter users reported being impressed by the huge voter turnout. In Surrey, Laila Yuile said she voted after waiting 40 minutes at the Newton Seniors Centre, while Marlyn Graziano wrote: “Wow — long lineup to vote at Fraser Heights Community Centre. Are we heading for large voter turnout (in Surrey?)”
On Thursday, the city said there was a strong turnout in the advance polls. More than 38,550 people cast ballots, a 98-per-cent increase over advance voting in the 2011 election, when 19,484 ballots were cast.
Earlier Saturday, Mayor Gregor Robertson said he was disappointed with an Elections B.C. decision to prohibit candidates in the municipal election from using social media.
Using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media websites to send out messages would be considered advertising, something candidates are not allowed to do on election day, according to the Elections Campaign Financing Act.
The mayor, who was in the West End Saturday to accompany his three kids to vote, said not being able to tweet or use other social media is “really disappointing” for Vision staff.
“It’s not a good thing,” he said, standing outside the West End Community Centre on Saturday morning. “I disagree that we should be banned from social media on election day. Hopefully we will see that overturned soon. I hope that it doesn’t suppress the young vote today.”
Election B.C.’s decision to ban candidates and their organizations from using social media was made in May, but Robertson said he only received final confirmation of that decision in the last 48 hours.
“It’s a last minute ruling that is surprising and disappointing,” he said. “I think this has an impact on young voters, who certainly use social media more than the older generation.”
Robertson said he was excited to see that it was a sunny day in Vancouver, and hoped that would boost voter turnout. “Hopefully we get a big turnout today, that’s the important thing because we want as many people in Vancouver as possible to come out and vote.”
Robertson arrived in the West End at around 10:30 a.m. with his three children — Terra, Satchel, and Johanna. It was Terra’s first time voting in a civic election. As for the mayor who is seeking re-election, he voted in the advance polls on Wednesday.
“I’m confident, I’m optimistic. I think we fought a really tough campaign and tried to be as positive as humanely possible,” said Robertson.
The three main candidates in Vancouver’s mayoral race are Robertson with Vision Vancouver, Kirk LaPointe for the Non-Partisan Association and Meena Wong for the Coalition of Progressive Electors. There are also six independent candidates running for mayor.
Recent polls have showed that it’s a close two-way race between Robertson and LaPointe.
Voting is also underway in civic elections across B.C. More than 3,200 candidates are running for spots on municipal councils, parks boards, regional districts commissions, trusts and school boards.
Robertson, who was elected as mayor in 2008, made a last-minute public apology to voters earlier this week, and asked supporters of the third-place left-leaning party COPE to vote strategically to keep him in office.
LaPointe is a former journalist with extensive experience at news outlets across the country, including The Canadian Press, the National Post, The Vancouver Sun and most recently as ombudsman of CBC News.
