‘Unacceptable’: Vancouver city manager issues apology for long voting lines

Voters wait in line at the West End Community Centre.

Vancouver’s top bureaucrat is apologizing to voters who spent hours waiting to cast their ballots in Saturday’s byelection.

City Manager Paul Mochrie issued a statement Sunday, beginning by thanking voters for their commitment to the democratic process – a commitment he acknowledged was put to the test at many polling stations.

“Voting wait times that many electors experienced yesterday were unacceptable,” he said.

“The extended wait times at many voting places reflected flawed planning assumptions for this byelection that informed staff decisions and the plan presented to council. Recognizing the effort by the city’s elections team to promote and execute this plan, it was clearly insufficient to accommodate the electorate in accessing an efficient voting process.”

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Videos and photos sent to CTV News and posted to social media Saturday evening showed long lines when the polls closed at 8 p.m. The final unofficial count would not be completed until after 1 a.m. Sunday when the unofficial results were released declaring victory for COPE’s Sean Orr and OneCity’s Lucy Maloney.

Mochrie noted that voter turnout was higher than in the last byelection – saying it increased by 40 per cent.

In 2017, 48,645 ballots were cast – nearly 20,000 fewer than this year’s 67,962. This year’s total includes more than 5,000 mail-in ballots and more than 7,600 votes cast in advance and does not reflect a comparative surge of 20,000 people on voting day.

Critics have pointed out the city operated 51 polling stations during its most recent byelection in 2017, and only 25 this year. Staff confirmed there were fewer workers as well, with an average of 10 per polling station, down from 12 in 2017.

Mochrie’s statement ended with a mea culpa and a promise to do better.

“These shortcomings are deeply regrettable and I apologize to all voters impacted by delays, as well as to candidates and civic parties,” he wrote.

“I, along with city staff, are committed to ensure that lessons from yesterday’s by-election inform the planning and execution of the 2026 general municipal election and all future City of Vancouver election efforts.”