Elections Ontario will be relocating advanced and election day polls at colleges across the province due to an ongoing support staff strike, according to a press release.
The decision will affect the accessibility of voting polls for more than 200,000 college students across Ontario, according to the Toronto Star.
After attempts at a contract agreement failed, 8000 support workers at colleges across Ontario abandoned their posts Sept. 1, leaving gaps in the inner-workings of Ontario’s 24 colleges.
The strike has closed child-care centres and created lineups and picket lines that have made it difficult for college students to maneuver.
Elections Ontario had decided for the first time this year to place polls directly on college campuses, a move intending to encourage young students to cast their vote in the Oct. 6 provincial election, according to the Toronto Star.
The polls will be relocated in order “to ensure that the security, integrity and accessibility of the electoral process is preserved for all electors,” according to the press release.
Jim Robeson, director of advocacy for the College Student Alliance, told the Toronto Star that Elections Ontario made the decision “with no consultation [of students] at all.”
Elections Ontario is in the process of displacing polls “to other accessible locations within the electoral district,” to ensure the polls are easily reached off campus, according to the release.
Robeson, representative of over 120,000 college students across Ontario, said he worries the move will affect the youth voter turnout.
“[We are] very disappointed.” he said.
