Voting

Back to HomeFeature Article - March 8, 2012 Local twist on voting irregularities  by Jeff Green

Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington has not exactly been at the forefront of the robo-call scandal that is embroiling the parliamentary political scene.

However, when reports about irregularities surfaced, it did inspire one local resident to contact Elections Canada.

Deborah Farrant, of Steve Babcock Lane in the Bedford district of South Frontenac, had an experience at the polls on Federal Election day in May of 2011 that did not prompt her to call in at the time, but in light of the current controversy she submitted a report last week.

“In my case it wasn't a political party that tried to stop me from voting, it was Elections Canada,” Deborah Farrant said.

Farrant did not receive a voting card before Election Day, but she went nonetheless to the Verona Lions Hall to vote, as she has done in every provincial and federal election since moving to South Frontenac over 10 years ago.

However, when she arrived there, “They told me that my poll was not in Verona, it was in Burridge. I have never even been to Burridge,” she said.

Instead of heading out to Burridge, Deborah Farrant asked to talk to the manager of the poll, who looked at her information, and then checked with the electoral office in Napanee. It turned out her poll was indeed supposed to be at the Lions Hall in Verona, not in Burridge, and she was given a ballot, allowing her to register her vote.

“I don't know what would have happened in Burridge, had I gone there,” she said. “After I voted, and was getting ready to leave, a man was being told that he, too, had to go to Burridge. I told him to talk to the manager,” she said.

When Farrant phoned Elections Canada last week to report her experience, she was told it was not the same kind of case as is being investigated by the agency.

“They said, oh that was just a clerical error,” Farrant said.