Voting extended at 27 polling stations in Ontario

Voting in the Ontario election has been extended at 27 polling stations.

Elections Ontario says nineteen ridings are affected, and as a result, counting can’t begin in those districts until their polls are closed.

The extensions span between 10 minutes and two hours.

Most polls are set to close across the province at 9 p.m. ET.

Polling conducted earlier in the campaign suggests the Progressive Conservatives led by Doug Ford are poised to form a second majority government.

The affected ridings are:

• Algoma-Manitoulin
• Brantford-Brant,
• Cambridge
• Don Valley West
• Etobicoke Centre
• Flamborough-Glanbrook
• Mississauga East-Cooksville
• Mississauga-Lakeshore
• Oakville
• Ottawa-Vanier
• Parry Sound-Muskoka
• Perth-Wellington
• Sarnia-Lambton
• Simcoe North
• Thunder Bay-Atikokan
• University-Rosedale
• Whitby
• York Centre
• Kiiwetinoong.

Meanwhile, the Liberals say campaign lawyers are reaching out to Elections Ontario about the 19 ridings experiencing polling delays, and not the technical delays from earlier in the day. They are looking to find out how long the delays will be and about any impacts.

The NDP say the delays are a serious concern, especially for Indigenous communities.

Elections Ontario says it has fixed a problem that saw no voter information data flowing to political parties for much of Thursday morning after polls opened.

The issue did not affect polling stations for voters, but rather the information that flows to parties to let them know who has or has not voted, which is known as “strike-off data.”

That data is used by parties to figure out who they need to try to get out to polling stations.

“The connectivity issue has been resolved and strike-off data is now being updated automatically,” said Elections Ontario spokesperson Nicole Taylor.

“Elections Ontario worked diligently with our telecommunications provider to resolve this issue promptly.”

Several parties told The Canadian Press they received one update Thursday morning, but there were supposed to be batches of voter information sent automatically every 15 minutes.

That data did not begin flowing until shortly after 2 p.m.

“It’s fair to say that our efficiency was very much impacted — volunteers would have been going to the doors of people who had already voted NDP,” said New Democratic Party spokeswoman Erin Morrison.

Parties were still able to gather that information by hand at polling stations.

“It didn’t really affect us,” said Liberal Party spokeswoman Beckie Codd-Downey.

The Green Party of Ontario said they also pivoted to picking up polling data in person.

Elections Ontario warned voters earlier Thursday of “last-minute” location changes to some polling stations after voting got underway. It encouraged voters to check on its website or app to confirm locations before heading to the polls. The leaders of Ontario’s four major parties cast their ballots in the morning.