Some voters had problems at polls
Some voters who attempted to be sworn in at the polls on Yukon election day found themselves unable to cast a ballot.
Some voters who attempted to be sworn in at the polls on Yukon election day found themselves unable to cast a ballot.
When Jacklyn Stockstill arrived at the polling booth Tuesday, she was told she would not be able to vote.
Stockstill, a local realtor, lives in the Mountainview riding and arrived at her local polling station on election day morning.
"I went to vote at 11 a.m. and I brought all of my ID because I hadn't been enumerated,” she said in an interview today.
"They didn't want to see my ID; they just told me I couldn't vote and had to have someone vouch for me.”
Stockwell called the elections office and said she was turned away.
"All the candidates who came by my door had a list with them and checked to see if I was on it, so naturally I figured I was on the list somewhere,” she said.
"They said I wasn't, and that I had to find someone to vouch for me, not just in my riding but in my polling area.”
Stockstill spent the next eight hours trying to cast her ballot.
She eventually had to call on one of her tenants to vouch for her so she could vote but says the process was so difficult, she witnessed 10 to 20 people being turned back on election day.
Jo-Ann Waugh is the chief electoral officer for Elections Yukon.
Being sworn in, Waugh points out, is not a process intended for everyone.
"Swearing in was intended for people who had been out of the territory, or out of the country and hadn't had the opportunity to get on the list and wanted to vote, Waugh said today.
"It really wasn't supposed to be for people who hadn't gotten themselves informed.”
She believes potential voters had plenty of opportunities to learn how to have themselves enumerated.
"A lot of people don't get why we don't need ID from everyone. Anyone who is enumerated didn't need ID to vote. If you weren't enumerated, it was a different story,” Waughsaid.
"Elections are physical location-based, so we need to know where you live. Then you also needed a person to vouch for you.
"We had news ads about the special review and the review, our phone number was well-published, we're online, I did radio interviews on nearly a daily basis,” she said.
Examples of proper identification can also be found on Elections Yukon's website.
They include a valid driver's licence, general ID card and property tax assessment. If the primary ID doesn't have a civic address included, a secondary piece of ID may be required which can include a utility bill, pay-stub or even a camping permit.
Waugh said she has received about one e-mail a day since election night from people who had trouble voting, but doesn't think they are representative of a high number of disappointed voters.
Stockstill maintains that not only wasn't the information made readily available, it left many without answers on election day.
"Most of the ads just say, ‘Make your vote count,' or something about remembering election day,” said Stockstill.
"I grew up in the Yukon my whole life; I am active in getting informed. How in the world I missed the information is amazing to me. I think we should have the right in the Yukon to show up with ID and be able to vote,” she said.
There were just 18,000 Yukon voters after the formal enumeration process, said Waugh. There were 2,000 more after the first revision and on election day there were 20,730 registered voters, all of whom had managed to become enumerated.
Waugh believes the poll staff acted professionally and often do not get enough credit for the scale of managing a territorial election.
"It's not really fair to the hundreds of people that work during election day to call them inefficient,” she said.
"Because every year, people come to your door and get your information and then when you show up at the polls and it is a simple process. What's so inefficient about that?”
The number of Yukon voters sworn in at the polls is not yet available. It will be part of the chief electoral officer's final report, due out sometime next month.
Yukoners re-elected the Yukon Party to an 11-member majority government Tuesday, as well as six New Democrats and two Liberals.
Comments (12)
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Dorothy on Oct 20, 2011 at 10:19 am
It is amazing how on election day some people think that they can automatically vote if their name does not appear on the voters list. Folks there are rules. if their wasn't any I can hear the screaming. I have read all the comments and I am amused. It is your responsibility to make sure you check to see if your name is on the list. So to the people who have the facebook spoof you really didn't do your job did you. If you folks wanted to bring out the young folk vote you should of been on the ball by having names put on when revision was going on. I listened to the interview on CBC on Wed and to suggest that we have a new election at who's expense. is your group going to pay for a new election? How ridiculous. The election is over and whether you like the results or not the people of the Yukon have spoken. Get over it.
I know for a fact that enumerators go out of their way to make sure that visits are made to each resident time and time again.
My question to you is have you ever had a look at the Elections Act? It is clearly written and the rules are laid out in plain language.
I would like to say thank you to all election officials it is a tough job and one that is thankless.
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oicu8i2 on Oct 20, 2011 at 1:26 am
The answer to low voter turn out is pretty obvious. Elections Yukon should admit the process maybe flawed and fix it.
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Billy Polson on Oct 19, 2011 at 11:12 pm
I too had been enumerated, they actually came twice, the second time to the back door of our home. They took my word I had a wife living with me and wrote her name down too. Actually ,they wrote down our first initials and last name, not our full names and said...ok you vote "here"......seemed ok. Got to "here" on polling night and all 5 individuals sitting around the table giggled when I pulled out my driver's license, copy of Electric bill and had my wallet full of other ID....nonono...where do you live?...I told her..you are B Polson. So I voted and felt like I just stole from an elderly person.
The Yukon really needs to grow up and walk the walk. There is a legitimate world outside.....I wonder who would be in power today if there was a change to the electoral system?
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concerned on Oct 19, 2011 at 6:17 am
My sibling, who has lived in the Yukon pretty much her entire life, was unable to vote on Election Day due to Elections Yukon error.
She was enumerated in person at her rural residence. The enumerator took her household information, left behind the info flyer, etc. She had no reason to suspect her name somehow would be lost or not make it onto the list. She certainly wasn't a person who "hadn't gotten herself informed" about the process.
My sister went in to vote in the evening on election day, after work, only to be told she was not on the list. She was told to find someone to vouch for her. Living in a country residential riding, with vast distances between residences and the polling station, she did not have enough time to go driving to random strangers' homes along the highway, introduce herself to someone and try to convince them to drive over a half hour to a polling station so they could pretend to know her and vouch for her.
I think the comment by our chief electoral officer that swearing in "wasn't supposed to be for people who hadn't gotten themselves informed," should be re-thought. My sister is an informed Yukoner and certainly can't be blamed for her predicament.
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much to complicated on Oct 19, 2011 at 3:14 am
The whole electoral system is too complicated by the sounds of it to me and i also have a beef with it .
For myself I had gone to vote on election day and was actually excited to vote for a particular candidate, only to learn that I was not on the voters list and had to do the vouching thing and prove your address and blah, blah, blah.
Well, my partner was on the list and my son was on the list.
So where was I when it came to enumeration as we have been at the same place for approximately 4 years and I just do not get it.
I believe that if it is a Territorial election and someone has a new secure Territorial drivers license that someone should be able to go to any polling station regardless of where they are and VOTE for people in their riding.
If one does not have a license then motor vehicles issues a general license I do believe that is secure.
Anyhow, there has to be a simpler way to vote and maybe next time I can vote and avoid the complicated process.
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Eric Gaucher on Oct 18, 2011 at 2:15 pm
I was enumerated and didn't have any problem to vote at all. In fact, it was even TOO easy! I knew I was on the list, but brought my ID anyway: just a driver's license; something with a picture and my address. When I arrived at my polling desk, they didn't even want to see my ID. So, then, who's to know who I really am? I mean anybody could go in, say "My name is so or so" and then vote? 30 min later go to another polling station and do the same thing? I've lived and voted in different places across Canada, and I ALWAYS had to show an ID. I think it's the bare minimum to control voting fraud. And than there are long time Yukoners that went voting with their IDs and got turned away? Somebody somewhere needs to review the voting procedures. Ridiculous.
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Sylvia Burkhard on Oct 17, 2011 at 9:38 am
I am well aware of the do-it-yourself method of enumerating so went down and got myself on the list. Supposedly enumerators came to my door 6 times! and supposedly they ran out of forms to put in the door. But my friend had one put in her door and it was just a photocopy so how do you run out. Perhaps I had the wrong party signs on my property, just saying. Next SNAFU will be the do-it-yourself census, let the chaos begin! People might wake up when they realize they have no personal identity anymore, maybe.
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Marianne on Oct 14, 2011 at 3:52 pm
I did hear Joanne Waugh say on the radio the process for voting at the polls and while I don't remember the neighbour thing, it sounded complicated. I went to the polling district office the last day you could just do that with some ID. That's what I've done for the past few elections.
This is a symptom of the erosion of respect for voting from both politicians and voters, to my mind. It's only in the past few years, I believe, that proving where you live and so on became an issue. It came up a couple of federal elections ago. It's progressing more and more towards attaching a "cost" to voting rather than enabling it as a right. The city attaching a census to voter registration a couple of years ago is another example.
But don't blame Joanne Waugh and the Elections Office. They're enacting laws made by politicians who have became complacent in thinking about voting as a nuisance.
I don't agree that it's the voters' fault if they didn't get it together, it's supposed to be a simple process. You don't have to earn the right to vote with a literacy test, and you shouldn't have to earn it by finding a neighbour you don't even know to "vouch" for you (a conflict waiting to happen, if you ask me).
But the time to stand up for the right to vote starts way before you're standing at the polling table looking for ID. Reminding politicians that upholding the right to vote is a sacred trust might help. An effective enumeration would follow.
I miss the voters' lists. The ones they'd post around town a few weeks before the election, and you could check for your name and then go fix the situation if necessary.
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Cindy Chiasson on Oct 14, 2011 at 7:25 am
I have to admit I am a bit pissy right now! To have Elections Yukon take the stance that they are right now in saying that it is the responsibility of the voter.
I had been enumerated or so I thought. Someone did come to my door and as well when the party that I was going to vote for came and asked I stated that I believe so. They said they would make sure to check. when I did not hear back anything I assumed, yes assumed that I had been. After all I had filled out all the appropriate information.
I went to my polling station Tuesday morning and was told by a very nice young lady that I was not on her list but could go to the side and be sworn in. I walked over to the table she had pointed out and the young lady there was more into checking her phone than explaining the process to me. She stated that I was not enumerated and why didn't I do it?? I explained that my neighbour (in Apartment) next door and I were done at the same time! I had even commented this to the enumerators by the way. Anyhow the young lady stated that I had to have two forms filled out and pointed to them as soon as I went to take them she said no no you have to have someone come here to fill them out.
Well everyone that I know works I stated, she said that "that was my problem, but we are here til eight tonight" she said.
I got angry I admit and stated that "guess I just wont vote then" and I left the building.
On my way out I saw a friend of my daughters coming in and started to chat with her and explained the situation that I was in. She said well we hopefully are in the same riding and if so then I will vouch for you no problem. In we went again and went to the same young lady ... who I might add is still playing on her phone.
I stated that I had found someone to vouch for me! She did put down the phone and handed us the forms but provided no explanation as to how or what to put on them. Twice we asked her about just what goes where as the forms were a bit difficult to establish if they were looking for a birth date or how long in the Yukon/riding.
Her answer was "I don't know" but at no time did she say she'd ask someone else... eventually we handed the forms back and she just said ok and sent us back to the first table to cast our ballots.
I have never in the years I have been voting ever had this sort of problem and treatment. When I called Elections Yukon later that day... they just thanked me for calling! No... we will look into it or nothing! OMG!!!!
So one it is nice to see that others are just as upset with this article as me... but heck they don't have to be accountable for anything but "us" we have to be accountable for everything!!!! grrrrr
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Eva Holland on Oct 14, 2011 at 1:37 am
"...people who hadn't gotten themselves informed."
It's unfortunate that our Chief Electoral Officer is so dismissive of the legitimate voters that were turned away on Tuesday (myself included). I had hoped this would be an issue that Elections Yukon would take seriously.
No enumerator ever came to my house. I never received a "sorry we missed you! here's how to get enumerated" note, as you generally do when you aren't home when they come by. I never found so much as a flyer from Elections Yukon in my mailbox. I asked several party volunteers, one Elections Yukon volunteer and one actual MLA candidate whether I could be enumerated at the poll on voting day, and they all said I could, so long as I brought ID. None of them said anything about needing someone to vouch for me. Apparently they were as poorly informed as I was.
On election day I finally found out about the voucher requirement, when I called Elections Yukon to confirm my polling location. When I went to the poll, I brought my valid Yukon driver's license, my valid Yukon health card, my rental agreement with my landlord and my most recent phone bill. I also brought a friend, a registered voter who lives six blocks away, to vouch for me. It turns out, though, that he doesn't live in my polling district, and I was turned away.
The only people I know who live in my polling district had also not been enumerated, so they were unable to vouch for me. (In fact, about half my friends in Whitehorse never saw an enumerator.) So this requirement was literally impossible for me to fulfill. But Jo-Ann Waugh wants to blame me for failing to get informed? I don't buy it. I was denied my right to vote on Tuesday, and I hope if Jo-Ann Waugh doesn't see that as a problem, someone else will be stepping in at Elections Yukon soon who takes voter concerns - and our right to vote - more seriously.
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Jennifer Smith on Oct 14, 2011 at 1:04 am
I have lived in the Yukon for 30 years. I live 20 minutes outside Whitehorse, and this was the first election I have ever had anyone come to my door to enumerate me. When I do my taxes, I tell them to put me on voters lists, but still every time I vote, I have to bring ID, utility bill, etc. and still have problems. The system is inefficient, despite what Ms. Waugh is saying. If you show up with the proper ID, etc. you should be able to vote!!
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Not Impressed on Oct 14, 2011 at 12:21 am
I was one of the lucky ones, who was home when the enumerators stopped by.
I was able to vote easily - in fact, I believe TOO easily. I made my way to the wicket and told the woman at the counter what street I lived on. She asked for the number so I told her, and then *she* told ME what my name was. She should have asked me for my name, so that she could confirm that I was the registered voter at my address. The way it worked, it could have been my next door neighbour, a total stranger, or even someone completely ineligible to vote in a Territorial election - casting a vote for ME.
To also know that so many people had difficulties voting disheartens me. I pay pretty close attention to the news online and the radio, and I didn't see or hear one reference to what a person would have to do in order to vote, if they hadn't been enumerated.
I agree that the onus and responsibility is on the voter to ensure that all the ducks are in a row. However, there is obviously lots of room for improvement to this system.