Polling on campus a bittersweet victory

By Jordyn Marcellus

Students at the University of Calgary have scored a victory when it comes to having a federal polling station on campus. The poll in the dining centre located near the residence buildings, will be open for regular electoral hours Oct. 14.


Unfortunately, it’s only for residence students. Students who live in the Calgary-West riding will have to go to their designated off-campus polling stations along with any student who lives outside of the Calgary-West riding.


Students’ Union vice-president external Alastair MacKinnon argued that this is not a strong enough effort to get students to vote.


“Elections Canada is bringing a polling station on campus and they’ve identified students as a key demographic that they want to increase voter turnout in,” explained MacKinnon. “They’ve gone through all the effort of putting a polling station on campus and now they’re saying that only a select group of students on campus are allowed to use that poll . . . That’s Elections Canada’s rules and I’m disappointed in them.”


Marie-France Kenny, the Alberta Elections Canada spokesperson, explained that this is still a relatively new policy for the organization.


“We haven’t done polling on campus quite a lot,” she said. “This is one of the first times that we’re doing it [across Canada.] We need to make sure everything is fine logistically ­– finding locations and hiring poll workers always proves to be a challenge even for regular polling stations. We keep improving the process for everybody and students are absolutely an area where the commissioner is keen on making changes to improve the voting process.”


She further noted that this is not just Calgary specific, but the same policy can be found all across Canada.


“This year, and that’s the case everywhere, if you don’t live in the residence and it isn’t your polling station you can’t vote there,” said Kenny.


MacKinnon explained that because many students do not have access to cars or money to fill up their tanks, the lack of available transportation to some polling stations is an issue that needs to be addressed soon.


“We’ve heard instances where polling stations don’t even line up with public transportation,” he said. “We know a lot of students don’t have private transportation and when a polling station is an hour away and you can’t even take a bus there or you need to take three buses, it’s ridiculous.”


Kenny explained that due to the volatile nature of Canadian elections, it’s hard to plan where many polls will be located.


“Once a writ is dropped, we need to find locations for polling stations,” she said. “Most times it will be in a school or a church, which are a convenience to a community around it. If those aren’t available, then Elections Canada has to look for offices that are within the community.”