There have been reports of voters receiving the wrong ballots during advance voting in Saskatoon’s civic election.
The city’s returning officer, Catherine Folkerson, confirmed at least three cases of people receiving the wrong ballot. In one case, the voter noticed the ballot was wrong and asked for the correct one. In the other two cases, two people at the Market Mall polling station voted on the wrong ballots.
Folkerson said the votes do count because the ballots have already been cast.
She said there seems to be confusion when it comes to Nutana Suburban Centre. The area used to be part of Ward 7 but after boundary changes it’s now part of Ward 9. The two people who cast incorrect ballots received a Ward 7 ballot instead of one for Ward 9.
There have also been boundary changes in Ward 2 and Ward 4. Folkerson said election staff have been instructed to ask each voter if the ballot they receive is the one they were expecting to get.
As of Friday morning, 8,500 people had voted at advance polls in this year’s civic election – which is up from the 5,400 who had cast advanced ballots by the same time in 2012.
