Vancouver polling station loses power, extends hours
Posted October 15, 2022 2:43 pm.
Last Updated October 15, 2022 6:04 pm.
A voting station in Vancouver lost power for a few hours on Saturday morning, prompting the hours to be extended at the location.
The area of E 41st Avenue and Fraser Street had its electricity turned off around 8:30 a.m. to replace a power pole, an email from BC Hydro states.
This voting place is currently unavailable due to a power outage and will re-open at 11:05 am. Please visit the following nearby voting places instead: 1. Sir William Van Horne Elementary School (5855 Ontario St) 2. Sir Richard McBride Annex (4750 St. Catherines St) ^RD
— City of Vancouver (@CityofVancouver) October 15, 2022
“When it was recognized that a voting location was impacted by this work, we abandoned the job as quickly and as safely as possible. Power was restored to the neighbourhood just after 11:00 and the power pole replacement work will be rescheduled,” says BC Hydro spokesperson, Kyle Donaldson.
He says the work was originally scheduled for Oct. 8, with a notice of the outage sent to impacted customers on Sept. 27.
“We apologize for the inconvenience this work caused anyone who was attempting to vote today,” Donaldson said.
The City of Vancouver says it was “not made aware” of the planned outage at John Oliver Secondary School.
However, Donaldson says, “According to our records, the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver School District were actually notified on September 27 about the October 15 date change. But we didn’t receive any feedback that a polling station would be impacted by this outage.”
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The city stated in an email, “the issue is now resolved and voting at that location has been extended until 9:05 to compensate for lost voting time.”
The John Oliver voting location is the only one in the city to get its hours extended.
Be sure to follow along with CityNews for full election night coverage both on air and online beginning at 7 p.m.
