After hearing concerns over transportation access to its new Tantramar polling station in Middle Sackville, Elections NB has agreed to provide an Election Day shuttle from the traditional polling site at the Tantramar Veteran’s Memorial Civic Centre, out to the new location at the Middle Sackville Baptist Church on November 28.

Chief Electoral Officer for New Brunswick Kim Poffenroth said in an emailed statement Wednesday afternoon that, “This one-time accommodation is meant to address concerns raised by individuals in the area about the distance to the polling station for anyone who must walk to their polling location due to a lack of public transportation.”

Poffenroth says that the agency is preparing communications materials to be sent directly to electors in the region telling them of the service. Voter information cards with details on when and where to vote are being sent out next week by Elections NB.

The Elections NB shuttle service will leave the Civic Centre every 30 minutes on November 28, with the first shuttle leaving at 10am, and the last leaving at 7:30pm. The shuttle will return voters to the Civic Centre after they’ve finished voting.

‘I hope this doesn’t happen again’

The Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU) was one of the voices calling fowl over the relocation of Sackville’s polling station to a less central location not easily accessible without a vehicle. MASU President Rohin Minocha-McKenny says the shuttle accommodation is a good compromise for this election, but he’s hoping the situation won’t be repeated in future.

”This solution came after quite a bit advocacy from the MASU,” says Minocha-McKenney, “with support from the university.” President Jean-Paul Boudreau and politics professor Mario Levesque both contacted Elections NB with their concerns over the polling location, along with local residents and MLA Megan Mitton.

Minocha-McKenney says the initial recommendation to Elections NB was to relocate the polling stations back to the Civic Centre, or to a spot on campus, something he says the university supported. But Elections NB was adamant that it was too late to relocate. “Having this accommodation made is a good compromise for now,” says Minocha-McKenney. “However, it was kind of emphasized in our meeting [Tuesday] that this is a one time compromise, and I agree with them because I really hope that this doesn’t happen again.”

“We’ve already had a conversation with Elections NB about the next election, and about having polling on campus,” says Minocha-McKenney. “And so far, they’re very supportive to have polls on campus at the next election [in 2024].”

Campus polling stations could solve problems, says prof

Professor Mario Levesque says he was shocked and bewildered after hearing Elections NB has chosen a polling station outside of central Sackville for the November municipal election. “I could not fathom why they would put something in a place that is probably the least accessible for the majority of the population of the actual riding,” says Levesque. “It just makes no sense. “

Levesque says the location choice was particularly egregious considering the “fiasco that occurred in 2020.” During Election Day in September 2020, a number of student voters were either discouraged from voting or turned away by Sackville poll workers and a party scrutineer who told them they would be breaking the law by casting a ballot. But students who are “ordinarily resident” in a riding or municipality for at least 40 days before the election are permitted to vote. In September 2020, that meant all returning students living in Sackville were eligible, and for this November election, all students living in town since at least October 19, 2022 are eligible.
Rohin Minocha-McKenney did manage to vote back in September 2020, armed with a letter from Mount Allison confirming his residence in Sackville. Photo: contributed

Levesque sees an easy solution to both the confusion over student eligibility and the transportation access issues: an on-campus polling station. Levesque says that in addition to being handy to where students live, poll workers in a campus station would be better trained to assist students with the documentation they need to get registered.

Levesque points out the issue of student access to voting is especially important in Sackville because at least one town councillor is on record saying he doesn’t believe students should be allowed to vote. As recently as February 2022, Sackville councillor Bruce Phinney told a meeting on municipal reform that because students are “only citizens for four years” and municipal decisions can have a much longer impact, that they should not be part of municipal elections. It’s a position that has been echoed by a small number of residents on social media.

“It’s alarming to me,” says Levesque, “that anybody would think that way, since there is a legal right here, and someone’s trying to suppress someone’s right to vote.”

Voting is a ‘baseline’ for community engagement

Students are eligible to vote in the municipal election, but are they interested? Minocha-McKenney thinks so.

“Many students are involved in the community,” he says. “We have connections within community, not just connections within Mount A, and we care about what happens.”

Minocha-McKenny points to the number of alumni who remain or come back to Sackville as an example of the connections they make while living here and going to school. “We want to be citizens contributing to our community,” says Minocha-McKenney, “and to be able to vote in elections is kind of a baseline for being citizens of this community.”

The MASU is holding a get out the vote campaign this month, and will be hosting a candidates’ forum this Monday, November 14, at 6pm in the Crabtree building, featuring mayoral candidates and candidates for Ward 3 council seats.