Eastern Shore voter frustrated by polling station misinformation

An Eastern Shore man said he nearly didn't vote at all after he wassent a voter information card with the wrong address for his advance poll.

Robert Brown lives in Lake Charlotte and drove an hour to Sheet Harbour.

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His polling station was listed as being at 202 West East River Road,Sheet Harbour.

"I drove up to Sheet Harbour,it would not show up on my GPS," he said.

After he made some inquiries, Brown discovered that the street name had been changed to Pool Road some years ago.

After more driving, he finally matched up the address with a campground site. More searching turned up a building with a small sign stating it was theWildlife Centre. It also turned out to be the district polling station.

'Not worth my time and effort'

Brown said the address problem andlack of signagewould be asignificant deterrent to many voters.

"I almost considered that as a 'robocalling',misdirecting people to the wrong place to vote," he said.

"I almost got frustrated enough that I almost came home forget it. It's not worth my time and effort, it was an hour away."

People working at the location were sympathetic, he said.

"Butthere was not much they could do."

He called Elections Canada when he got home.

'There have been some irregularities'

"The overall attitude didn't help much. He [Elections Canada representative] wanted me to come in, he wouldn't deal with the issue over the phone."

Elections Canada spokesperson Francoise Enghardsaid there have been some address mistakes.

"We acknowledge there have been some irregularities with the voter information cards...and polling locations.We cannot be aware of the error until someone calls to report it," she said.

"We know that those situations have happened. We fix them as we learn about them. We are in revision mode until Oct. 15."

She advised anyone who is uncertain about polling station locations to call Elections Canada for more information before leaving to vote.