The rush to advance polling stations across the Maritimes has led to long wait times for many would-be voters.
On Saturday in Halifax, lines began forming early in the day.
“The lineup was far too long,” said voter Verne Redmond. “The way that they're verifying the people is taking too much time.”
Elections Canada says the process will likely take longer at an advance polling station than it will on election day.
“You have to sign a form, and there is only one ballot box that is stipulated and those are the rules,” said Francoise Enguehard, Elections Canada media advisor.
But voter Roy Langill says the new process isn’t working. He says he was at a polling station for over an hour on Saturday.
“It's just unacceptable,” he said. “Everything's in longhand. It’s supposedly a new process so they have to write your name and address and all that good stuff down.”
Elections Canada officials say there are protocols in place during advance polling to ensure the integrity of the process.
Enguehard says the first day is typically the busiest.
“More than we expected, and of course we have no way of gauging when people will decide to come and vote,” she said.
Elections Canada says lineups are unavoidable, but the agency is taking steps to try to make the process go as smoothly as possible
“We have tried where possible to redeploy people and resources to make sure that the process can go quicker,” said Enguehard.
But Redmond says they’re not doing enough.
“They've only got two tables, they should have … about eight to ten tables in there,” she said.
Enguehard says Elections Canada is not able to add more ballot boxes as lineups grow.
“Voting is also a serious matter and you can't just expedite it quickly in order to make it quicker,” she said.
Advance polling stations will be open across the country on Sunday and Monday from noon to 8 p.m.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Sarah Ritchie.
