Elections Nova Scotia to delay results due to late opening at polling ...

Elections Nova Scotia will delay the release of provincial election results tonight due to the late opening of a polling station in the riding of Eastern Shore.

Naomi Shelton, director of communications at Elections Nova Scotia, said the polling station at 22 Power Rd. in Mushaboom had to delay its opening after election workers arrived without some necessary supplies. 

She said the station was scheduled to open at 8 a.m. local time, like all others in the province. However, the workers had to go back for those supplies, resulting in the station only opening at 9 a.m. 

To make up for the delay, the station will now remain open for an extra hour, closing at 9 p.m. Shelton said Elections Nova Scotia can't start to publicize any voting results until all voting is closed, so the results will also be delayed. 

"In order to maintain the integrity of the election, you don't want to be reporting results when active voting is still happening because it can have an influence on active voting," she said. "We wait until all voting locations are closed and that would be a standard practice for provincial general elections."

Meanwhile, some voters trying to use the Elections Nova Scotia website or phone line to find out where they needed to go to vote ran into problems temporarily on Tuesday morning.

People who tried to log on to the website were unable to get the web page to load and those who attempted to call the toll-free phone number encountered a message informing them "the customer you dialed isn't available right now."

Voters have to rely on the website or phone line to locate their polling stations, as Elections Nova Scotia opted not to send out information cards to registered voters over concerns of the pending postal strike. 

The election was announced on Oct. 27 and the Canada Post strike began on Nov. 15.

In a media release, Elections Nova Scotia said a high volume of calls and traffic on the website caused delays and connection issues. 

Shelton said the issues with the website and phone line (1-800-565-1504) were resolved within an hour, though she said the phone line was still experiencing some delays because they have a limited number of operators.

Rochelle Owen had no luck when she tried to access the website or phone line. She said she was trying to get information for a family member through the website, but she got a loading screen that kept timing out. 

When she tried calling instead, she got a message saying that the customer was not available. 

"I'm quite concerned about our democratic institution," she said. "The second line of communication is totally gone."