Little Burgundy residents concern over access to vote in EMSB election

A group of Little Burgundy residents say the choice for a voting station for the upcoming English Montreal School Board elections is an obstacle for them and they won’t be able to properly exercise their right to vote — calling it a systemic barrier for their electoral participation.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, mothers like Kelly Bonin, who has five children, say the choice of the voting station location, which is placed at the bilingual St. Gabriel Elementary School in Pointe Saint-Charles is one of the barriers.

“It’s not easy, especially with the voting stations being so far away. For me, it presents a massive inconvenience. I know it’s a ten-minute drive in retrospect, but with five children and for the day that it falls on and the public transportation, it’s almost an impossible feat,” explained Bonin.

Vanessa Gibeau, another mother added, “We have municipal elections, we have federal elections, there’s no problems with those,” she said. “Why can we not have the school board election here?”

Bonin and residents said this has created an obstacle that could negatively affect their voting rights on Sunday. In spite of this obstacle, they’ve had to pull together resources and make special arrangements for those affected. 

“The grassroots approach that our community has come up with for carpooling and getting parents who would otherwise not have the wheels to make it there or keep that on the back burner as a priority, now it can be a reality,” she explained.

Mike Cohen spokesperson for the school elections office at the EMSB sympathized with those affected but said nothing can be done, as information on the locations has been posted for weeks and requests to get on the list have been made since January. 

“The election office does its due diligence and does the best it can to try to place the voting stations in convenient spots, it’s regrettable for these people, some of whom have to travel far,” said Cohen.

“We feel badly for them, we commend them for speaking up and wanting to vote,” he said. ” [But] they also need to understand that we also have an issue with personnel.”

Cohen said acquiring all 450 personnel to work at the stations was a challenge and they don’t have the personnel to go beyond the current polling stations. 

“It’s not walkable for these people they would have to take public transit,” Cohen said. “We applaud them for wanting to vote, but we don’t really have much of an alternative.”

As for Bonin and the other residents, they hope Montrealers and parents help increase voter turnout, with advanced polling already seeing a 5.1 per cent turnout rate.

“I would urge any parent who has children in the Montreal School Board to actually do their diligence and put in a vote,” said Bonin.