Elections Ontario byelection flyers mailed to wrong ridings

Voters in Niagara Falls and Thornhill have received Elections Ontario flyers advising of the other's byelection

Toronto Star
January 24, 2014
By Robert Benzie

Greetings from Thornhill, the honeymoon capital of Canada.

Welcome to Niagara Falls, conveniently located north of Steeles Avenue.

Voters in both ridings will cast ballots in Feb. 13 byelections, but a snafu by Elections Ontario’s pamphlet printer meant hundreds of them learned about the other’s contests.

“I thought: ‘What is this? It’s Niagara Falls, why would I be getting this?’” said bewildered Thornhill resident Arlene Levine of an Elections Ontario flyer she received in the mail Thursday advising her of the Niagara Falls byelection.

Levine, who lives in the Bayview and Highway 7 area and plans to vote in the contest, said Friday that she and her neighbours were baffled by the erroneous pamphlet.

“I was out for dinner with a group of them last night and everybody got one,” she said.

Elections Ontario’s Christina Friend-Johnston said “unfortunately, our printer accidentally sent some of our flyers intended for Thornhill to Niagara Falls and vice versa.”

“We distributed approximately 50,000 flyers to each electoral district. At this time, we believe that between four to six per cent of the flyers were inadvertently delivered to Niagara Falls and Thornhill,” said Friend-Johnston, noting the printer must cover the cost of the mistake.

“We continue to work with our printer to resolve the issue and to get the correct flyers to affected electors,” she said.

“Next week, we will be sending personalized notice of registration cards to all Niagara Falls and Thornhill electoral district residents on the permanent register of electors. Each card lists an elector’s assigned voting location as well as returning office and advance poll locations. Advance poll voting locations are also available on our website and will be advertised in local newspapers.”