Today's News |
Elections BC Website Sloooowwww, and Crashing, on Election Day (and Doesn't Report "Official" Polling Locations)
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Vancouver, BC, May 9, 2017--(T-Net)--Multiple people and media organizations are reporting today that they are either unable to access the Elections BC website in order to find out where to vote (super slow loading times - think 2 minutes plus), or that the website has crashed entirely and is giving an error message.
See the CBC's coverage of this here:
Heavy traffic jams Elections BC website on voting day
T-Net staff members ourselves investigated and found extremely slow loading times (2 minutes plus during testing), and error messages - mid afternoon on both the desktop, and mobile devices.
Not only that, but we actually tested entering specific address information for three selected addresses in downtown Vancouver on the "Where to Vote" page and for the addresses we selected, were provided only with a list of "possible" voting places, but NOT the "actual" designated polling place
(i.e. every 'legend' or location icon displays EXECPT for the icon in light red intended to show the official "assigned" or "designated" polling location).
Why does that matter?
Because if you can't locate your "Where to Vote" package that was mailed or don't have it with you, and want to look up your polling place online, you might not actually be able to find the specific official correct designated polling station for your address.
And goodness help you if you end up in a "possible" polling place but not the "assigned" one.
Then you may end up (like us) in a humungous long "general" line (think 30 minutes plus) to try and vote (mid-afternoon).
Want to try asking an Elections BC staffer or volunteer at a polling station where is the correct official assigned polling location for your address? Good luck with that.
Think a lot of blank stares, "we don't know's", "we're not sure's", staring at various wall maps, and then finally - "look it up on your smartphone".
Oh yeah - oops. The website is down (or crawling), and still doesn't give the correct "assigned" polling location (on either the desktop or on mobile devices).
And what is with the sketchy looking URL's for the "Where to Vote" and Elections BC websites?
https://wtvelectionsbc.azurewebsites.net/ or
http://142.34.128.33/index.php
Seems like technology and systems could definitely use a boost over at Elections BC.