Elections Canada balks at campus voting station in Moncton

Frustrated after being denied a campus voting station by Elections Canada, the University of Moncton students union is finding alternate ways to boost the number of young people voting in the upcoming federal election.

Elections Canada is running a Canada-wide pilot project, where it is putting polling stations on university and college campusesto see if that drives up voter turnout among young people.

• St. Thomas University works to get out the vote

• Interactive: Find your riding

• Interactive: Poll Tracker

• Interactive:Vote Compass

In New Brunswick, those campus stations are both located in Fredericton, at the University of New Brunswick and the neighbouring community college.

Pascal Hach, the president of the student federation at the University of Moncton, said Elections Canada's refusal to place a station on his campus left his group with only one option.

"Elections Canada wouldn't come to us, so we decided to go to them," he said on Information Morning Moncton.

On Friday, the student federation has paid for a Codiac Transpo bus to bring students from campus to Elections Canada's Moncton office from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. so they can cast their ballots.

Hach said he's now getting calls from people offering rides to students who want to vote. And if Friday's bus service is a success, he said the student federation may consider paying for more buses on Election Day.

The idea of hosting a polling station on campus is not new. Elections New Brunswick has placed voting booths on the Moncton campus in 2010 and 2014.

Elections New Brunswick said in its 2014 election report that 2,833 votes were cast at allcampus voting stations across the province, compared to 2,665 in 2010.

Boosting low voter turnout

Setting up a campus polling would help address the problem of low voter turnout levels among young Canadians, Hach said.

"Most students don't have a vehicle, so they have to rely on either walking or taking the bus. Most of them, it will be their first time voting, so they haven't gone through that process yet," Hach said.

"If it is on campus, we can help them out and guide them through it For us, it was to give students a chance between two classes to get out and vote."

Elections Canada picked the campuses that are participating in the pilot project by size and by region and in talks with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

Francoise Enguehard, an Elections Canada spokesperson, said Moncton wasn't selected this year but that doesn't mean it won't host a federal polling station in the future.

"This is a pilot project, the first of its kind, we need to basically see how this works and then decide on whether or not it warrants a larger implementation across the country," Enguehard said.

She said students are encouraged to visit Elections Canada offices until Oct. 13, where they can vote by a special ballot.

When voting with a special ballot, a student can vote in their home riding, even if it isn't in the constituency that the office is located.

As a student leader, Hach said it is crucial that elections agencies and other groups find ways to encourage young people to get out and vote.

"Students from 18 to 25 are the population that vote the least and I think we need to take every step possible to encourage the vote," he said.

Almost three million Canadiansunder the age of 24 are eligible to vote in the Oct. 19election, butonly 39 per cent of those eligible in the 18- to24-year-old age group voted in the 2011 federal election, according to Statistics Canada.