Canada Post confirms ‘processing issue’ led to delay in voter card delivery

By Adrian Ghobrial and Dilshad Burman

If you’re still waiting for your voter information card in the mail, you’re not alone – in fact you’re among 500,000 Ontarians who have been affected by a Canada Post “processing issue.”

The postal agency tells CityNews that it has been working with Elections Ontario to deliver over nine million voter cards province wide. It says most of them were delivered successfully, but they’ve hit a snag with the last half million.

“Unfortunately, we experienced an issue processing approximately 500,000 from the last batch of the cards,” says Canada Post in an emailed statement. They added that the issue was a “mechanized process failure” and have put additional resources in place to sort the cards manually.

Canada Post has not officially commented on the nature of the processing problem, but an employee tells CityNews it might have something to do with the new voter information cards introduced this year. He says the cards have a different texture and are also perforated.

The worker says the new cards have a tendency to stick together, and he adds that employees were finding cards from completely different parts of the province stuck together. He claims the large number of cards attached to each other caused an extensive backlog.

However, Elections Ontario tells CityNews the cards were designed as per Canada Post’s specifications.

“We made every effort to ensure that our voter information cards meet Canada Post’s specifications,” says Jessica Pellerin, Bilingual Communications Officer for Elections Ontario.

“In fact, through our vendor we provided several thousand test cards in advance and received a pass grade from Canada Post each time. So from our understanding the cards were up to their standards.”

In addition, on Wednesday, Elections Ontario issued an official news release advising voters of a Canada Post delivery delay. They added that they were “disappointed” with the level of service this year but are working with Canada Post to rectify the situation.

In addition, the release said registered voters were supposed to receive the cards by May 25 at the latest, with advance polling beginning May 26. They also reminded voters that they can still vote without a voter information card as long as they bring in a piece of identification that indicates their name and current residential address.

Canada Post says all the cards in their system should be out for delivery by end of day Monday.

“We apologize to Elections Ontario and to anyone who has yet to receive their Voter ID card for any delay,” they said.


Related stories:

Ontario election 2018: Your voter questions answered


 

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today