How many polling stations does Elections Canada establish for each general election and what should I bring with me to vote?
There were more than 18,000 polling locations in Canada for the June 2004 election. They included everything from hospitals to fire stations to Legion halls, aimed at making the casting of votes as convenient as possible. Elections Canada needs that many to ensure no eligible voter has to travel more than 30 kilometres to vote. Half of all polling stations are located in educational facilities and community centres across the country, buildings most likely to be wheelchair accessible. Hundreds of mobile polling stations are also sent out to collect the votes of elderly or disabled persons living in health-care institutions. Federal ridings (also called electoral districts) are broken down into many different polling divisions, also known as “polls.” Each stationary polling site usually has several polls within it. Voters in the 308 ridings cast ballots in about 59,000 individual polls during the 2004 election. That’s an increase of 1,295 individual polls from the 2000 election. Voters
