Election 2014: Why was there no voting station at Loyalist?

By Kate Shumakova and Mo Cranker

BELLEVILLE – Another municipal election has passed and there was still no polling station at Loyalist College.

City clerk Matt MacDonald says that the city of Belleville has never had a polling station at Loyalist for municipal elections, “simply because we don’t have credible data on how many eligible electors the college has.”

But that doesn’t mean it will never happen, MacDonald said, adding that the city will consider it come next election.

Within Belleville, 16 voting stations were open to the public on election day. Online voting was open from Oct. 6 to 20. In addition, people could vote at advance polls from Oct. 16 to 18.

QNet News reporter Courtenay Modeste talked to Loyalist students on election day and the consensus from students was that they were not going to be voting.

Anna Goldfinch, Ontario representative on the national executive of the Canadian Federation of Students, said that an on-campus polling station would be a good way to get students more involved.

“I think it’s important in any election to make polling stations and election information as available as possible for students and young people,” said Goldfinch.

Some Ontario universities and colleges had shuttles set up to bring students to the nearest polling station to cast their ballots, she said.

Two of the younger councillor candidates from this year’s election said they think a polling station at Loyalist would encourage young people to vote.

“If they had a polling station at Loyalist we would probably see an increase – definitely a higher result in eligible voters,” said Devon Dings, 25, who ran unsuccessfully in Belleville’s Ward 1.

Dings said he had expected there would be more interest in voting among young people in this election, but that was not the case.

“We thought we were going to bring … a lot more (students) in to vote. (But) not this year.”

Tyler Allsopp, 21, who was also defeated in his bid for a seat on Belleville council, said that a polling station at Loyalist is necessary to get young people voting here.

“I think we would be done better if Loyalist College had a voting station,” Allsopp said. “It has been a big push in terms of trying to get young people to vote. I think that one of the easiest steps in that process would be to have a polling station at the college.”