McMaster University students cast early election votes, 'a win-win-win for democracy,' says professor
Campus polling station runs until Wednesday at 9 p.m. with off-campus advanced voting starting Friday
Casting a ballot this federal election was a must-do for 21-year-old McMaster University student Eden Ryley.
She and her roommates made a pact they'd vote before they went on vacation because it overlapped with Election Day on April 28.
An extra-advanced polling station on the Hamilton campus made it easy, Ryley said.
On Tuesday, after a game of squash, the fourth-year life sciences student stopped to vote for the first time in a federal election. She said she was motivated by wanting issues that impact her future to be taken more seriously by party leaders.
"Education costs and the job market right now for young people are not great," she said. "It's not addressed as much as other issues in politics."
A steady stream of students entered the polling station Tuesday, greeted by other students running it with support from Elections Canada staff.
Similar "vote on campus" polling stations are operating at universities across Canada this election, said McMaster political science Prof. Karen Bird.
"This is a win-win-win for democracy, for removing barriers for our students and for bringing the community on campus," she said.
The polling station opened Sunday and runs until Wednesday evening at 9 p.m., in L.R. Wilson Hall, and then will open again for Election Day. Voters can cast a ballot in McMaster's riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, or the riding their from anywhere else in Canada.
Psychology student Olamidi Mabadeje, 19, voted for the incumbent running in his hometown of Prince Albert, Sask.
"My main issue is the safety of the community I live in and the MP that's addressing that has done a really good job," Mabadeje said.
Provincial polling station saw good turnout
This is the first federal election polling station at McMaster since 2019, said Bird. Polling stations in the 2021 federal election were limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year, students in the minor program Civic Vitality, Democracy and Electoral Management (CIV-DEM) ran a polling station for provincial election. About 700 people voted in it, which Bird said was "pretty good."
CIV-DEM is interdisciplinary meaning students from other undergraduate studies can enrol.
- For all of CBC Hamilton's federal election coverage, click here.
"We're less assured about the strength of our democracy," Bird said. "There's disinformation that young people are particularly vulnerable to through social media. CIV-DEM tries to answer that call to say if you're a math student, an engineering student, democracy is still important to you."
The university plans to do another polling station for the municipal election next year, she said.
Off-campus advanced voting, for all eligible voters in the federal election, runs Friday through Monday.
Voters can find out where they can cast a ballot early by searching their postal code on Elections Canada's website.
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