Senior disheartened with no voting polls in living complex

Gail Beesley felt disappointment when she heard there would be no voting station at the independent living seniors complex where she lives.

“I was shocked,” she said. “(I’m) really surprised, because I just expected I’d be voting here.”

Beesley heard the news in the monthly paper for Regina’s Broadway Terrace at the end of September.

In her 10 years living in the building, she said there has always been a voting station at the housing complex for federal, provincial, and municipal elections.

Mail-in ballot applications have been given to residents in the building, but Beesley worries people with vision problems may need help to fill them out.

“A lot of people need assistance with all of that,” she said.

Beesley said she can not walk to the nearest polling station that’s over two blocks away, with rough and bumpy sidewalks along the way.

“We don’t know what the weather is going to be like that day either,” she said.

Beesley still drives her car but hasn’t yet made up her mind if she will vote by mail or in person.

While she can take a few residents to the polling station, she worries other residents may not have a ride.

“I just feel that a lot of people won’t even bother voting if they can’t do it easily,” she said.

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Tim Kydd, an Elections Saskatchewan spokesperson, said Broadway Terrace was missed while it was gathering the list of senior facilities asking for additional help.

People with the Elections Saskatchewan office will be sent out to the building to help residents cast their ballot if needed, he said.

About 370 personal care facilities that are licensed by the province will have in-person voting stations, according to Kydd.

An additional 450 independent living facilities were located by the Elections Saskatchewan, where Kydd said those buildings had vote by mail applications and posters.

Kydd said a member from Elections Saskatchewan would travel to some independent living facilities to give a presentation on the vote be mail process.

“This election we are stressing the vote by mail option for all voters, it’s open to any eligible voter,” he said.

The provincial election will host a voting week that will take place from Oct. 22 to 26 with the final day for voting on Oct. 28. There will be no voting on Oct. 27.

“There are fewer voting locations in Regina and Saskatoon this election, but the ones that are there are larger and open longer hours, during the day, and for more days,” Kydd said.

There will be a total of 56 in person voting hours for the provincial election, according to Kydd.

Kydd said people who need additional help to vote will have options to cast their ballot from home.

“In that case we actually have an election worker who brings a ballot box to somebodies location, and they can actually vote within their home,” he said. “Both them and their caregiver.”

The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 19.