Student groups advocate for on-campus municipal polling stations

Student groups advocate for on-campus municipal polling stations
BUSRC Vice-President of External Affairs Joel Cook (Photo : Courtesy)

By Michael Boriero

Many students living in Sherbrooke expressed displeasure when Elections Canada abandoned its on-campus voting pilot project for the 2021 federal elections, and now they are fighting to remedy a similar situation unfolding for the upcoming municipal elections.
The Fédération Étudiante de l’Université de Sherbrooke (FEUS), Bishop’s University Students Representative Council (BUSRC), and Association étudiante du Cégep de Sherbrooke (AECS) are working together to convince the city to bring polling stations to campuses.
BUSRC Vice-President of External Affairs Joel Cook told The Record that when Elections Canada pulled its pilot program, students were perplexed by the decision. Cook considered it to be an attack on the youth vote, and it’s happening again in the municipal elections.
“The youth vote is extremely important with 40,000 active students in the Estrie, it’s pretty clear that the student voice is a big voice […] and to make voting access more difficult for these students and to use the excuse of the reallocation of resources; we don’t buy that,” he said.
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