‘It’s a voter deterrent’: Vancouver byelection voters face long lineups to cast their ballots

Some voters waited more than an hour to cast their ballots at Hillcrest Community Centre on Saturday.

VANCOUVER — Some voters in Vancouver faced long lines as they waited to cast their ballots in the municipal byelection Saturday morning.

Voters told CTV News they waited more than an hour to vote at the West End Community Centre, and long lines were also reported at Britannia and Hillcrest community centres.

Maryanne Byrne said it took her two hours to cast her ballot at Hillcrest, and shared a video of the line, which snaked through the building’s interior and out the front doors.

Byrne was unimpressed with the “tiny” room in which voting was taking place, saying she felt election day voting should have been held in school gymnasiums – as is often done during general elections – rather than at community centres.

“I feel like it’s a voter deterrent,” she said of the long lines. “They’re really making it difficult.”

Ben Perrin was one of those who left Hillcrest without casting a ballot. He said he saw a lot of other people in line weighing the same decision.

“I’d like to vote, but I just can’t sit around all day and wait in line,” he said. “A lot of people were walking away. They’ve got other things to do.”

Nate Logan said it was a similar story at Britannia. He told CTV News via email that he was one of “many people” who left without voting due to the long lines there.

“I couldn’t spare two and a half hours to wait in line for my right to vote,” he said. “Elections people failed us!”

Parties voice concerns

Byrne’s experience was echoed across the city, prompting some of the parties competing in the byelection to call for last-minute changes.

OneCity Vancouver called for the city to extend polling place hours past 8 p.m. in recognition of what it described as “overwhelmingly long lineups.”

TEAM for a Liveable Vancouver – which is running two candidates in the byelection, Theodore Abbott and former councillor Colleen Hardwick – issued a statement Saturday afternoon demanding the city “immediately increase staffing” at polling places.

“This poor planning for voting stations is demonstrably discouraging people from exercising their democratic right to vote,” said TEAM spokesperson Sal Robinson, in the statement.

“TEAM wants the Vancouver Election Office to immediately get extra staff on hand for the remaining hours of this important election for two city councillors.”

In addition to its demand for increased staffing, TEAM said it “is gathering evidence to file an official complaint over the lack of adequate staffing and resources in this byelection.”

In an interview with CTV News Saturday, Hardwick pointed out that the city operated 51 polling stations during its most recent byelection in 2017.

“The evidence is there that prior byelections have had double the number of voting places,” she said. “Who in their right mind would halve them? Either that’s a case of mismanagement or it was intentional. Either way, it has been an assault on our local democracy.”

City responds

In a statement Saturday morning, the City of Vancouver’s elections office said it “appreciates Vancouverites’ commitment to participating in the byelection and the patience they are demonstrating when voting.”

“The election office modelled this byelection off data from the past two byelections, and so far, this byelection has had significantly higher voter turnout comparatively,” the statement reads.

“Following the record-high voter turnout demonstrated on advance voting days, the election office has mobilized an additional 45 staff members compared to initial staffing projections and is deploying them to support the busiest locations. The election office has also sent additional tabulators to the busiest locations throughout the day to increase processing speeds.”

Asked a follow-up question about the reduction in the number of polling places this year, the election office reiterated that it is “deeply appreciative” of voters’ patience.

The office noted that the 2017 byelection featured races for both council and school board, with the latter meaning that UBC and University Endowment Lands residents were also eligible to vote.

“When planning for the 2025 by-election, staff reviewed the 2017 data and found that 25 voting locations averaged fewer than 500 votes cast per location throughout the day, indicating that our resources were over-allocated relative to the turnout at those sites,” the election office’s second statement reads.

“Additionally, at that time vote by mail was not available to all residents, with only 649 requests received.”

This year, the office said it “aimed to align anticipated voter turnout more accurately with the number of voting locations.” It also expanded vote by mail access, which led to more than 6,400 mail ballot requests.

A referendum on ABC?

Byrne placed blame for the situation on Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver party, which holds a large majority on city council.

Municipal byelections are run by non-partisan city staff, not the mayor or city council, but Byrne singled out the mayor for her frustration.

“He’s running the operation,” she said. “Let’s start there.”

Saturday’s byelection was called to fill seats vacated by the Green Party’s Adriane Carr and OneCity’s Christine Boyle.

The vote is anticipated to be a litmus test for Sim and ABC, which swept to power in 2022 with all its candidates for council, park board and school board elected.

Advance voting days saw record turnout, with 7,671 ballots already cast before voting started Saturday.

Early voting was held only at city hall, and it also generated long lineups.

After the first day of advance polls, ABC issued a news release criticizing the process, with candidate Ralph Kaisers calling it “a gong show.”

At the time, Katrina Leckovic, the city clerk and chief election officer, said she was surprised and pleased with the number of people that came out to vote.

While ABC noted that there were 22 polling places open for early voting during the 2022 municipal general election, Leckovic said byelection and general election processes shouldn’t be compared.

“We modeled our plan this time off of a previous byelection experience and the voter turnout being historically low. We anticipated that the two advance voting days would be sufficient. We also are working within a $2 million budget, which is less than half of what a typical general election would come with and that results in reduced locations, reduced staff and other reduced expenditures.”

Leckovic added if ABC wanted changes, the party should have addressed that months ago in council.

In January, council approved a report outlining staff’s byelection plans.

A total of 25 polling places – including city hall – were open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.

The departure of Carr and Boyle — who left after being elected to B.C.’s provincial legislature — leaves only the Green Party’s Pete Fry and former ABC member Rebecca Bligh serving who aren’t ABC councillors in Vancouver.

ABC is running two candidates, including Kaisers. The city’s three left-of-centre parties — COPE, OneCity and the Greens — are running one candidate each, with COPE represented by Sean Orr, the Greens by Annette Reilly and One City by Lucy Maloney.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Isabella Zavarise and The Canadian Press