Voters aren’t being asked to cast their ballots at the landfill, even though a map on Elections Canada’s website might lead them there.
A reader contacted Black Press this week to advise that her efforts to locate her polling station online at elections.ca provided her with a correct address, but was accompanied by a map that directed her to the Nanaimo Regional Landfill on Cedar Road.
“Some people that are going to use the map on the Elections Canada site are going to get frustrated and confused and go to the wrong area and go, ‘what the heck is going on here?'” said Page Escallier.
Her voting place is the North Oyster Community Centre at 13467 Cedar Rd. in Ladysmith, but the Google maps pin is for 1105 Fielding Rd. in Nanaimo, which pins to the landfill address, 1105 Cedar Rd., 11.5 kilometres away from the community centre.
“It will get them to the complete opposite end of Cedar Road,” Escallier said.
Andrea Marantz, spokesperson for Elections Canada in B.C., noted that a disclaimer on the website notes that map data is offered for convenience purposes, provided by Google Maps, and is accompanied by a ‘report a map error’ link.
“Of course the intent is to be helpful,” she said. “There certainly have been glitches from time to time, but generally, it has been extremely reliable.”
She said Elections Canada wishes to know about any errors in polling station addresses as soon as possible, and is “very responsive” to fixing those mistakes.
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