Two of Sherbrooke’s polling stations in the borough of Lennoxville got less than rave reviews from voters.
The Record was contacted by a Bishop’s University student who claimed to have been waiting in line for over an hour and a half to vote at The Gait on campus, and was nowhere near the front of the line.
Upon arrival, voters exiting the polling station explained that it had taken up to 1h 45 min to complete the process.
“It seemed dis-organized,” said one Sherbrooke resident. Adding insult to injury, some voters managed to breeze through in a matter of minutes.
The problem, according to one citizen who had just voted, was that students were mixed in with the general public, and the majority of them were registering on site, a time consuming extra step.
“This is what turns people off voting,” one woman said, on her way out of The Gait.
A group of students in line said they had already waited in line for over 40 minutes to register, and then left. They were waiting in line for a second time to try and cast their votes.
Two first-time voters came out of the polling station with a big sigh. When asked what they thought of the experience, they said “It was an absolute pain in the XXX.”
Despite having a voter registration card, a drivers’ license and four additional pieces of I.D., one young man was turned away because he had recently moved. He was forced to return to his home and go back with the lease for his new apartment.
The wait wasn’t the problem at the Famille Marie Jeunesse polling station, at 319 Queen. Voters heading to the poll from Lennoxville were essentially required to make a U-turn, before climbing a long narrow hill to the convent.
“It’s beautiful, but not very practical.”
One pedestrian on his way up the hill said he had been walking for an hour to get to the polling station.
Other voters remarked on the lack of accessibility for people with low mobility. Even the walk from the parking lot was a substantial hill to climb, they said.
Voter woes
