Union Gospel Mission offers free rides to advanced polling stations for the Vancouver mayoral election

by Travis Lupick on November 4th, 2014 at 4:25 PM

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The Union Gospel Mission (UGM) has announced it will offer free transportation to advanced polling stations ahead of the civic election planned for November 15.

On November 7, 8, 9, and 10, UGM will run shuttle buses from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to carry people from the intersection of East Hastings and Princess Avenue to early voting booths located outside the Downtown Eastside.

The news was posted on the charitable organization’s Twitter feed.

A map produced by the online civic-affairs watchdog City Hall Watch shows that Downtown Eastside residents will have to walk a long way if they want to make use of advanced polling station for the November 15 election.

City Hall Watch

On October 8, the Straight reported that a glaring hole exists in maps of advanced polling stations for the 2014 civic election. While there are six early voting stations west of Main Street, there are only two east of Main, and neither of those are anywhere near the Downtown Eastside, Strathcona, or Grandview–Woodland.

That led residents to cry foul.

Jak King, who lives in Grandview-Woodland, said it's obvious the map shows an uncovered area.

“It’s very peculiar that that whole swath from DTES through Strathcona and Grandview and up to Mount Pleasant [is] completely off the map,” King previously told the Straight .

“It’s a distribution that strikes anybody I think who looks at it for any length of time as unbalanced,” said Rider Cooey, a member of the group Downtown Eastside Votes. “What’s needed is some sort of effort to rebalance the distribution.”

Despite those calls and the threat of a human-rights complaint, Vancouver's chief election officer has declined to act on the matter.