Dear Editor,
Just when you think nothing in politics can surprise you any more, along comes a voting-information card for Oct. 21 from Elections Canada.
Despite a widespread public push to increase voter turnout, I am instructed to vote at a community hall some 13 kilometres from my home, which when I last checked was not served by public transit.
I do have an option: an advance poll at Langley Secondary School, which is easier to reach but also some 12 kilometres distant.
After a frustrating search through the labyrinthian Elections Canada website, I see some Aldergrovians can vote at Shortreed Elementary or in an advance poll at Parkside Elementary. I live about four kilometres from Shortreed and three from Parkside, where I have voted in every federal election during my three decades in Aldergrove.
I’m fairly confident that I shall be able to register my vote nearer than Bradner Hall, but will everyone also directed there from afar be willing to do the same?
How many folks are being “disenfranchised” by this summary Elections Canada decision?
Are special buses being arranged to transport those without vehicles or who need assistance?
Party campaigns have only so many volunteer drivers, and their vehicles have limited capacity.
Perhaps the time for electronic voting has arrived.
This is almost 2020, after all.
Janet Ingram-Johnson, Aldergrove