Voting woes

This morning I went to exercise my right to vote. It was a little more complicated than I thought it would be, though.

My polling station is at an elementary school right around the corner from me, so I walked over and arrived a few minutes after the polls opened.

Firstly, shame on the city of Montreal for failing to salt the sidewalks outside the schools being used as polling stations. This environmentally-friendly gravel-only policy is all very well and good, but there are plenty of senior citizens or other mobility-challenged people in my area who were having lots of trouble getting in and out of the building.

At any rate, when I got inside, it wasn’t too crowded; only about a dozen people were in line in front of me. What I didn’t know then was that all of them were for the same poll number – mine – and that they had been standing there for 10 minutes already. It would take another 25 before I could go in.

All the other polls were empty, and people were being directed straight inside when they arrived. However, at my station, there was an elderly woman with a visual impairment and someone accompanying her, and apparently they were having problems because it took them over a half hour. In the meantime, they weren’t allowing anyone else to vote. Never mind that there were two people at the table, and only one was helping them. Never mind that there were five other completely empty tables with nobody there. No, we all had to wait it out, because they didn’t have any kind of provisions for people with special needs to be taken aside and assisted without holding up the line. Smart, eh?

All I can say is that if the country is being run the same way as this election, then we’re in bigger trouble than I thought.