An open letter to the media, Dalton McGuinty,and Elections Ontario
My right to vote has been severely impeded. Let me explain...
As a student, I currently reside in Peterborough, but my permanent residence is in Midland. All my bills, government info etc... get sent to my parent's house. I live in Peterborough to go to university. I receive no utilities (they're sent to my landlord), no bills (sent to midland), and the only mail I receive is personal mail. I temporarily reside in Peterborough, but I LIVE in Midland. The Ontario voter registration information was sent to Midland. I assumed (as has been the case with previous elections), that advance polling would be an option for me during the thanksgiving weekend. Much to my surprise and chagrin, advance polling ended on the Thursday BEFORE the long weekend, and I had NO way of knowing. The website for elections Ontario did not say an end date for the advance polling until this weekend, and said date was inside the letter that was sent not to me, but to my parents.
I returned home on Friday, attempted to vote on Saturday, and was refused for the reasons mentioned above. Tersely, it was explained that the polls were closed, I should have read the letter (which I didn't receive), or I could vote by proxy. To vote by proxy would involve getting myself, one of my parents, and a witness to fill out a document, return it to the office by the deadline, which is Tuesday (after which time I would have left midland to go back to school). Unable to return the document to the office on by Tuesday because I was returning to Peterborough, this option was not possible, nor should someone else be inconvenienced for my right to vote.
Now, the only option for me to vote is to vote in Peterborough, which would require me to fulfill even more bureaucratic obligations which, given the time allowed, I may not be able to do.
Since I learned about these roadblocks to MY democracy, I have called the office of Elections Ontario. On Saturday, at 5:30 pm, I called, and was met with an automated voice mail saying that the offices were closed, and also that the office hours were open until 9:00 on Saturdays (which is at odds with the information provided on the website, which I only checked after I called 4 times).
It is unacceptable that it should be incumbent upon my family members to bring in a document to an office on the opposite side of town in my absence just so I can enjoy this most basic right. It is unacceptable that advance polling should run until the day BEFORE a weekend when many students like myself would be traveling back to their home ridings to vote, especially taking into account the 4-year notice of this election (it would be one thing if the government fell, and an election was called at the zero hour, as was clearly NOT the case). It is unacceptable that my recourse to vote is based on simply by virtue of Peterborough being a back-up vote. If I wanted to vote in Midland (the riding of simcoe north), it is impossible to do, and constitutes a violation of my democratic rights.
It is my firm belief that, given what has happened in a mere two-day span, my right to vote has been greatly impeded by bureaucratic incompetence and shortsighted policy making, with the end result being the effective disenfranchisement of my, and countless other students in Ontario, right to vote. As a result of this offensive oversight, the results of this election and referendum are suspect, and undemocratic. I demand an immediate public apology to Students across the province, disciplinary action taken to Elections Ontario, an explanation from the current administration, and IMMEDIATE voting recourse to those of us that have been shut out of our government for no just cause.
This sort of electoral ignorance I would expect out of Florida, or the Ukraine, not Ontario.