Skip to content

No easy access for voting seniors

I personally know of three people that were unable to vote because they use a walker or a cane but the distance was too much for them...

To the Editor:

I am a person in the community that helps seniors. I am wondering why, in this community with the population of seniors that we have, there were so many people to help out with the election and no one gave one thought to where we set up the voting polls and how inaccessible they were to a lot of the seniors in this large population of seniors.

This is totally unacceptable. We don’t have even one wheelchair in the front lobby. These people are and have been major taxpayers in this community and we could not be prepared for them on election day. The cost of the elections runs up into the millions and yet no consideration was given to these people. We should all be ashamed. The distance that they had to walk once they entered the community complex was out of line — the pool was being cleaned and the lobby of this building is huge but lets make the seniors walk a mile. How many of our unable taxpayers were not able to vote because of this reason? They have the same right as the rest of us to vote.

I personally know of three people that were unable to vote because they use a walker or a cane but the distance was too much for them. Maybe our next purchase for the community complex should be a couple of wheelchairs. These are the people who have been here for years and paid their taxes. Let’s open our eyes and make things more accessible for them.

I would like to thank the lady that helped me and the senior I brought down to vote. She went to the pool and retrieved a wheelchair for the pool, as the senior I brought was unable to walk the length of the complex. It would be really nice to have these things arranged or someone to at least bring it up to the organizers so in four years, when we have the next election, someone might think of others before themselves.

Leanne Boire

Creston