Manitoba voters residing at the Flin Flon General Hospital on April 19 did not have a chance to vote in the provincial election, according to information from the Northern Health Region and Elections Manitoba.
Last week, The Reminder received a call from a reader who was concerned that no voting station had been set up at the hospital.
Twyla Storey, communications coordinator with the Northern Health Region, confirmed that voting officers did not come to the hospital on voting day.
“Elections Manitoba had made arrangements with the Flin Flon General Hospital to bring a travelling ballot box during a particular time. That arrangement did not happen,” said Storey.
Allison Mitchell, manager of communications and public information with Elections Manitoba, confirmed that voting officers go into smaller personal care homes and health care facilities with mobile voting stations on election day. A single ballot box usually moves to several of these small voting stations throughout
the day.
In Flin Flon, a ballot box was taken to both the Northern Lights Manor and the Flin Flon Personal Care Home, but it was not taken to the hospital.
Mitchell said that she believes the hospital was missed because, on April 15, a communication occurred between a hospital administrator and Elections Manitoba, during which Elections staff were advised that there wouldn’t be any eligible voters in the hospital on election day.
“We were told by a ward clerk at the hospital that the third floor of the hospital is where medical patients were housed, and at that time, patients from the personal care home were being moved there because of some work that was going on,” said Mitchell.
“Now my understanding is that they had not been moved.”
Mitchell added that while miscommunication seemed to be the cause of the error, Elections staff should have confirmed on election day that nothing had changed, in spite of any information they may have received.
“We only found out after election day that they didn’t go back and re-check on the day itself,” she said.
“Our processes in the future will ensure that we do a follow-up check on election day, even if we had previously been told that there wouldn’t be eligible voters there.”
After speaking with hospital staff, Mitchell estimated that five or six eligible voters did not get a chance to vote.
“We regret when any eligible voter misses an opportunity to vote, and we apologize for that.”
