Polls are open across the city today (November 15), as voters cast their ballots for city council, park board, and school board.

Nearly 120 locations across the city are open until 8 p.m. tonight.

Candidates are also out on the streets today in final attempts to get their names out and encourage people to vote.

But a new election day rule prohibiting candidates from using social media has taken some Vancouver municipal parties by surprise.

Mayor Gregor Robertson told reporters he’s “really disappointed” at Elections B.C. over the rule.

“It’s not a good thing,” he said outside the West End Community Centre.

“That’s a public realm, and particular impactful on our younger people voting. That’s a world they spend a lot of time in, it’s public domain, and I totally disagree that we should be banned from social media on election day.”

Robertson said his party just received confirmation of the new rule within the last 48 hours.

“There was no heads-up on this well in advance,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate. We were hopeful to be making sure people got the word through social media, because there’s a lot of activity on Twitter and Facebook right now.”

Robertson spoke to media after dropping off his three children to vote, and said he plans to spend the rest of the day across the city meeting with volunteers who are helping to get the vote out.

Green councillor Adriane Carr also launched election day in the West End, in the first of a series of street-canvassing stops before polls close at 8 p.m.

Car told reporters on Denman Street that her party was also taken aback with the new social media rules for candidates.

“I think that’s a fairly draconian change to the election act that got slipped in by the B.C. government changes earlier this year,” she said. “We weren’t aware of it until we really read that act thoroughly. It was certainly not well publicized in advance.”

She noted the Greens had originally planned to use social media to get the vote out on election day.

“It was our intention to say where our candidates are going to be…we’re positioned all over the city,” she said, noting that instead, party volunteers are handing out flyers and holding signs at various locations.

COPE candidates and volunteers are taking a similar approach, with people stationed around the city.

"You have to go to a physical place to vote anyway, so it makes sense to have a physical presence," COPE park board candidate Ezra Bloom told the Straight in an interview at Commercial and Broadway.

During a canvassing stop in the Downtown Eastside, COPE mayoral candidate Meena Wong added that she wouldn't have time to post on social media on election day anyway.

Meanwhile, NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe said the election day ban isn't a bad thing.

"Twitter is profound...but I think in campaigns like this it's still pretty conventional," he told reporters near Templeton Secondary School.

"Word of mouth really matters and the kind of conventional way of getting your vote out truly matters too."

While candidates and their parties are prohibited from using Twitter today, many other users are taking to the site to remind their followers to vote, and to give updates on waiting times at polling stations around the city. 

A total of 27 elected positions are on the civic election ballot for mayor, city council, park board, and school board.

The city saw a record voter turnout for its advance polls this year, with a total of 38,556 ballots cast. The turnout marks a 95 percent increase from advance polls in the 2011 election, according to the City of Vancouver.

Vancouver residents are now able to vote at any polling station in the city.