Calgary students still hope to see polling stations on campus

CALGARY – As post-secondary students juggle course loads, jobs, and extracurriculars, a Calgary student group is calling is hoping to make accessing a polling station next month a little easier for people on campus.

The Calgary Student Alliance is to looking reverse a decision made by Elections Calgary that denies students the opportunity to vote on campus.

The group is made up of post-secondary student leaders, representing about 90,000 students.

Last Thursday, the collective created an online petition called Vote Anywhere after Elections Calgary denied them the opportunity to vote on campus during the advanced voting period for the upcoming municipal election.

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“The only way to facilitate that is for the vote anywhere polling stations to physically be on our campuses,” said Marley Gillies, the chair of the organization.

She says especially this year, the student vote is essential.

“Come September, we’re going to have two cohorts of new students, we’re going to have the first-years that are joining us on campus but we’re also going to have the second-years who haven’t been on campus for a whole year. So, we’re going to have this huge new group of impressionable students and if you vote in your first election, you’re more likely to keep voting,” she said.

Vote Anywhere was created to accommodate the busy lifestyle of post-secondary students.

The petition has gained popularity on social media and candidates have even reached out to the organization to let them know that they too disagree with Elections Calgary’s decision.

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The student alliance requested a meeting with Elections Calgary to discuss getting polling stations on campuses—but election officials said making those polling stations available to students wouldn’t be possible due to the pandemic.

“What we heard was centred around the COVID-19 pandemic and the sort of health measure that they are operating under. That was a really puzzling reason for us because students are returning to classes with 300, 400 people in the same lecture hall yet it’s supposedly not safe to go and vote,” Gillies shared.

She adds students are used to seeing polling stations on campus—stations were set up at post-secondary facilities for the 2017 municipal election and the 2019 provincial election.

Elections Calgary says other reasons to remove the advanced polling stations include ballot logistics and accessibility issues such as parking.

Gillies hopes that the Calgary Student Alliance got the word out early enough that come October, the decision will be reversed.