Rural Yukoners react to closed federal polling stations
Some people in rural Yukon are "ticked" to find out they'll have to drive a ways down the highway to vote in the upcoming federal election. Two polling stations, in Destruction Bay and Champagne, are closed this time around.
"I'm not impressed," said Marsha Flumerfelt, who lives in Destruction Bay. She'll now have to drive 16 kilometres down the Alaska Highway to Burwash Landing to cast a ballot.
"The part that really ticks me is the fact that there's four advance polls in Burwash," Flumerfelt said. "Why can't they have one here?"
Yukon Returning Officer Sue Edelman said in a letter to the local campaigns that closing the two polling stations is about "wise use of taxpayers dollars." She said in the past, polling stations in Eagle Plains, Johnson's Crossing and Keno City have been closed for similar reasons.
"It doesn't make me a happy Canadian citizen at all. And certainly not a happy elder," Flumerfelt said.
Yukon's least busy station
In 2011, the Destruction Bay polling station was Yukon's least busy, but turnout was slightly higher than the Canadian average — 26 people voted, representing 68 per cent of all electors in the community. Voter turnout across Canada in 2011 was 61 per cent.
In Champagne, 32 of 53 eligible voters cast ballots in 2011, a turnout of 60 per cent. Voters in that community will now have to drive 64 kilometres to vote in Haines Junction.
Cecile Sias, who runs the Kluane Bed & Breakfast outside Haines Junction, says even a short drive is not guaranteed on voting day, Oct. 19.
"I remember the last election, I took off to go voting and turned around because the road was glare ice," she said. "We never know what happens in October."
Voters in Destruction Bay and Champagne supported Conservative Ryan Leef in 2011, by comfortable margins. He won 65 per cent of the vote in Destruction Bay and 46 per cent of the vote in Champagne. In Burwash Landing, Liberal Larry Bagnell was favoured, winning 10 of the 27 votes cast there.
Cost, secrecy, and accessibility
James Hale, a spokesperson for Elections Canada, would not talk specifically about Yukon's polling stations, but said there are a number of factors in deciding where to locate polling stations. Cost is one factor, secrecy is another.
"If a poll gets really small, it's difficult to maintain the secrecy of the vote, you know, if there's only a couple of people voting," Hale said. "It's a balance between maintaining the secrecy of the vote and practicality."
Hale also said polling stations must be physically accessible.
"In this election there are 15 mandatory physical accessibility elements that have to be in place for a polling place to be used," he said. "This has come up across the country."
Still, for some voters in remote and rural communities, the loss of a local polling station can rankle. Others are more sanguine, as they watch the campaign from afar.
"I feel a little bit removed this year from the election," said Sias. "We don't see anybody anymore. The candidates don't come around anymore."
"I think it's all done on computer or whatever, but I'm not a person that spends my time on the computer," she said.
