City of Toronto Polling Stations Complaint - Toronto Elections - 2014

Toronto Councillor Vote 2014

In Ward 30, in Toronto, I was a victim of Polling Station tampering.  It has become apparent that Paula Fletcher has somehow almost twice the votes for Liz West in 2014.  I ask, how is this possible since she only lost by 259 votes in 2010?  Paula Fletcher has not done anything to warrant such a surge in votes.  Literally, she almost won by approximately 5,500 votes in 2014. The demographics have changed, but those shifts would not favour Paula Fletcher.  Also, there are many people coming forward with their complaints about what they saw in the voting stations.  I was at the Queen Alexandra Public School Voting Station - I was shocked by what I found.  Here are the reasons that I have lost complete faith in Ward 30's 2014 vote:

• There have been 2 reported instances where Paula Fletcher's name was preselected on the voting card
• There was an hour long wait to vote: Due to ineptness of staff onsite 
• Person who was looking at ID's was unable to locate names
• Voters were taking the sheet away from her and looking themselves
• When I went to mark my ballot, I was abruptly overtaken by two people who felt the need to quickly cast a ballot without waiting for the line to pass.  They went behind the voting wall together.  Only one person is supposed to be behind the barrier at a time.  It seemed that the man was telling the woman who to vote for.  
• Once I marked my ballot, I then went to submit it into the machine.  The woman took my ballot and proceeded to feed it through the machine.  As I started to walk away, she told me the machine is very faulty and seemed to not work properly.  How can I be sure that all of the votes are being accurately tallied?  
• There has been a lot of talk about polling stations being hostile and out of control with yelling and screaming
• People that did not know how to vote were being told what to do
• There was a severe lack of voter cards distributed to voters.  How is it that I pay property taxes each month, yet I cannot receive a voter card?  What was the determining factor in receiving a card or not?  

For these points alone, I feel that there should be a revote for Ward 30.  I have heard from many other complainants, who all state similar issues with the Ward overall.  If we do not push for a revote, we will be putting our rights on the back burner, allowing people to run us over with their fraudulent actions, which has serious impacts on our city.  Please comment if you saw anything at your polling station that makes you feel insecure about the vote in your Ward.  You may not have even thought anything about it at the time, but when you look back, there might be something that was fishy happening at the polling station.

We Must Seek Change

My vote was for Liz West, but that is not the reason I am asking for a revote.  The scene at the polling station I went to was disturbing.  It was the Wild West of polling.  There was a lack of control and leadership at the venue.  It seemed that people were roaming around doing anything they wanted. People were certainly worried about what they were seeing there.  A quote that I heard was "Good to see there is a line of professionalism here." This was said with complete sarcasm!  The voter said this after they noticed someone take the registration list and start browsing through it themselves.  

The communication was pathetic.  Nobody knew what was happening, and people were even leaving without casting a vote because it was so inconvenient.  Voters need to have fair access to voting without the threat of an hour long wait, and complete chaos awaiting their approach.  I do not see how someone like Paula Fletcher can be highly regarded with 3,500 more votes, when her antics only seem to defame people, and cause problems.  She is not a champion.  She milks her position for personal gain, as we saw with her condo purchase.

Is Paula Fletcher Really That Good?

I ask this because I know that Paula Fletcher does not get the vote of my friends.  Although we do not represent the whole city, I feel that we represent common thought for people that want a city that moves forward.  Since 2010, more likeminded individuals live in Ward 30.  The new condo developments that we see along King St and Dundas St have increased the average income for households here.  The higher the income, the more likely people will vote.  Thus, we have seen an increase in the amount of votes in Ward 30.  But, I do not believe these new votes would all go to Paula Fletcher.  I feel there is a multipoint approach to this fraud that has occurred.  It involves people telling people what to vote for, inept staff at polling stations that were ill-equipped to deal with fraud happening before their eyes, and an issue with the ballots being filled in before being marked by the voters.

We Must Move Forward

The below is more so for the sake of statistics and jumping to some conclusions.  It does not substantiate the need for a revote, but there are some interesting statistics to note.

The only way to overcome this is through enforcing the rules that were created to help avoid situations like this.  I want the City to hold a revote.  How is it that a Ward that grow by a mere 2% from 2006 to 2011, increases the total votes for one candidate by nearly 40% in 2014.  Again, she has not done too much to acquire these new votes, while Liz West has been eagerly getting her name out there, with most that meet her, stating they would vote for her.  Look at the numbers below.  There were 19,327 votes in 2010.  This past municipal election showed 24,025 votes for Ward 30.  That's a 24.3% increase in voters!!  

Toronto Ward 30 Votes - Comparison of Results:

2010 RESULTS:

2014 RESULTS:

There is no chance that people would stray from Liz West and vote for Paula Fletcher.  Paula Fletcher has lost much of her base if anything from this Ward.  Liz lost nearly 2,000 votes in this race.  If you have ever met Liz, you know that her tenacity does not allow for people to stray.  Once you connect with her, you will have her back forever.  I don't see it possible for her to lose this many votes, and for those votes to move to Paula.  Other than these two candidates, there truly is not much movement in the voting.  The biggest point is that Liz list 2,000 votes and Paula gained nearly 3,500 votes.  The only way that this was legitimately done, is if the new condos that have been built were not frequented by Liz West.  I am sure this was a part of her strategy to introduce herself, and I feel as though these new mindsets would be more of a vote for her.  We needed change in City Hall, and Ward 30 has now put a damper on that goal, by allowing Paula Fletcher to get back in the position she should have lost.

Please share your voting story with us through comments.  Toronto deserves better!  We deserve to have properly managed votes, and ones that do not fringe upon our rights as citizens to have fair elections.  The complaints are starting to poor in, and I suspect the city will have to make a decision as to whether a revote is needed.  

Thank you for your contributions below, it will greatly help to spread the word across Toronto!