Voter card with incorrect information vexes northern Ontario couple

A northern Ontario couple is warning others to double check their federal election voter cards, after one of their cards arrived riddled with errors.

When Ruth Fletcher and her husband opened their mailbox last week to find their voter cards had arrived, they discovered his card had the wrong first name and the wrong polling location.

"It says that he's supposed to go vote in the Windsor Tecumseh riding," Fletcher said.

That riding is about 10 hours away.

Her husband, Paul Ward Conway, did go to university in Windsor but that was in the late 1960s.

The couple have lived at their current address Montreal River Harbour, which is located halfway between Sault Ste. Marie and Wawa for more than 25 years.

"It's very bizarre ... very,very bizarre how the glitch could be that bad," she said. She noted that her voter card was correct, but "I'm also thinking maybe we're not the only ones [with incorrect cards]."

They aren't.

Last week, voters in Saskatchewan and 300 voters in the Yukon were given incorrect voter cards, some of which instructed people to polls 600 kilometres away.

Elections Canada spokesperson Serge Fleyfel told CBC News "it is kind of inevitable sometimes that there could be issues [when] 26.5 million cards [are] sent out."

The voter card is actually an information card, and its main purpose is to verify the correct address and information to speed up the voting day process, he added.

Voters don't need a card to cast their ballot.

Elections Canada said voters have until Oct. 13 to let them know of any issues with the information on the cards.