Slight hiccup in Windsor West delays start of voting day for some residents

Despite provincial election polls opening in Ontario at 9 a.m. Thursday, some in Windsor West had to wait a little longer to cast their ballot.

Shortly after 9 a.m., some residents told CTV News they had been turned away from some polling stations in Windsor West and asked to come back later.

According to Elections Ontario, the opening of some polls was delayed but "none by more than two hours."

"These were caused by incidents such as fire, sewer backups and power outages," Elections Ontario said in a statement.

But for voters in Windsor-Tecumseh and Essex, where MPP seats have been vacated by retiring politicians Percy Hatfield and Taras Natyshak, voting was a smooth process.

"In and out really quick. The people in there are doing a great job," said Essex resident Kaytee Rickman. "We love our volunteers and it's great to see people voting on who should be running our province.

For Rickman, the most important issue going into Thursday's vote is health care.

"It's important that we're taking care of our people that are most vulnerable, our elderly, because that's going to be us one day," she added.

Bill and Mary Davidson cast their ballots around 11:45 a.m. and said they wrapped up the voting process within five minutes. The couple said they've try and stayed informed on the major political developments in the days and weeks leading up to the vote.

"We still get the printed newspaper at home so I had been following the party that I'm most interested in," said Mary.

Windsor West voters weren't the only ones who faced slight hiccups on voting day. Parties also had trouble knowing exactly who had voted.

Elections Ontario also said its centralized portal that it supplies to parties was disrupted Thursday morning "due to connectivity issues."

The portal includes strike-off data which parties use to figure out who has voted so they can push their supporters who have not done so to go out and vote.

"I can confirm that from the time polls opened until 2:15, Elections Ontario did not provide data. The data is an important part of each campaign’s Election Day plan," said Erin Morrison, communications director for the Ontario NDP.

"Under the Elections Act, Elections Ontario is required to provide the data every 30 minutes (or more often). We are now receiving the data."

The Ontario Liberal Party tells CTV News it started receiving the data around 1:45 p.m.