Lineups and lack of parking among the voting complaints in Waterloo Region

As Ontarians head to the polls for a winter election, some voters are encountering problems. CTV’s Heather Senoran explains.

Some voters in Ayr said it took longer than expected, while some Kitchener voters said parking was an issue at their voting station, for the 44th provincial election.

At Cedar Creek Public School in Ayr, voters said it was busier than expected on election day Thursday.

“Apparently, the WIFI went down and we can’t use the school WIFI to do this. So everything has to be done manually,” said one voter.

According to Elections Ontario, they were aware of the issue but said it wasn’t impacting voting.

“There has been no disruption in voting at the Cedar Creek School. While technical issue staff are working to resolve [the outage], voters remain fully able to cast their ballots,” said a representative in a statement to CTV News. “If there is a temporary lineup, we encourage voters to stay in line or come back later in the day as their schedule permits.”

For this election, paper ballots are used.

Elections Ontario said in a voting location with technology, you place your marked ballot into the secrecy folder and take it to an election official operating a tabulator. In a voting location without technology, you will fold your ballot and place it into a ballot box yourself.

“There’s no computers but they’re running two books at a time, so you give them your ballot and they scan it through the scanner and you’re good to go,” said one voter at Cedar Creek.

Tabulators are not connected to the Internet, according to Elections Ontario.

“In a voting location with technology, election officials use E-pollbook computers to check voters against the voters list,” Elections Ontario said.

At J.F. Carmichael Public School in Kitchener, some residents said it was nearly impossible to find parking. In the afternoon, many cars were seen pulling into the driveway but being told to leave to park elsewhere.

“We’re sorry to hear of the difficulty at the J. F. Carmichael Public School. Local election officials will continue to work closely with the school to ensure voters are able to access the voting location,” said Elections Ontario.

Some voters said they were lucky to have a convenient designation.

“We had a voting booth in our apartment building. So all I had to do was get out of bed, get dressed and go down the hall,” said one voter.

It seemed to be a smooth process at Guelph City Hall Thursday morning even if some didn’t agree with the timing of the election.

“Was a little bit of a snap election. So, it is a bit of weird and frustrating. I don’t really think that this is the time to do it but it is what it is,” said a Guelph resident.

The last time there was a provincial election in February was more than 140 years ago.

“I do feel bad for the tens of thousands of people in Ontario that do tend to head south,” said a Kitchener resident.

Others said it is their duty to vote and they’re happy to do so – rain, shine or snow.

Many kept their top issues, top of mind when casting a ballot.

“The things that are important to me are health care and education. There’s a lot of talk of people not having family doctors and not having enough doctors around. I’ve got small grandchildren that are just starting into school,” said one resident.

Polls close at 9 p.m. Thursday.