The HRM Election office placed polling places in 25 retirement homes, assisted living complexes and nursing homes. Collectively they had the following results:
Boyd- 41 (2.9%)
Fougere- 289 (20.6%)
Kelly- 1,076 (76.5%)
Now, I’m all for placing polling places in retirement homes, even if in some cases there is a miniscule return on the resources spent— some homes had as few as 13 or 14 people voting, yet two poll workers were required to be present all day long.
But why can’t polling places be likewise placed in university dorms? Fenwick Towers alone has 400 residents, and many hundreds more live in other dorms, but not one of them hosted a municipal polling place.
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2008.