Elections Ontario is apologizing and clarifying mask rules to poll workers in Ottawa after one voter was forced to cast his ballot outside for declining to wear a mask..Ontario’s mask mandate ended March 21. Elections Ontario said voters will not be required to wear masks to vote in the June 2 provincial election..Yet Matthew Kelman said Ontario poll workers would not allow him inside his poll station because he declined to wear a mask when he showed up to vote Thursday morning at 11 a.m..‘“There is no mask mandate,” he told the Western Standard. “Why should I be forced?”.Instead, Kelman was led to the side of the property and was told to wait while poll workers decided what to do. He said he waited about 10 minutes while they constructed a polling station outside..“They were scrambling,” he said..Kelman said poll workers told him the building policy, not Elections Ontario, requires masks for anyone entering..The poll station was Dominion Chalmers United Church, owned by nearby Carleton University. Carleton purchased the church in 2017 to host music classes..Kelman said voters who won’t or can’t wear masks might not want to vote outside, especially if it rains, as Ottawa's forecast calls for Thursday evening..“I honestly do believe this is voter suppression,” he said, adding there should not be" two sets of rules.”.In an email to the Western Standard, Elections Ontario spokesperson Jo Langham apologized for the incident..“We can confirm that masks are not mandatory to vote,” Langham said. “We have followed up with the returning office for that electoral district to confirm that masks are not mandatory to vote.”.The Western Standard reached out to Carleton University. Carleton did not respond by publication deadline..Polls close in Ontario at 9 p.m. EST. Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives are expected to win a majority government, according to polls.
