TEAM accuses city hall of voter suppression in by-election

A political report suggests that voter suppression occurred during this year’s Vancouver by-election on April 5.

Cited by TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, the report estimates over 33,000 people were unable to vote due to lengthy wait times, some exceeding 90 minutes.

The report claims that the city’s decision to cut the number of polling stations in half from 2017, despite a larger budget, and to concentrate them in community centres, created unnecessary barriers.

The analysis indicates that city staff did not take into account historical by-election voting patterns, nor did they consider census and electoral data.
TEAM also claims the city’s post-election review inadequately addresses these issues.

“There is no question that this by-election was poorly planned and discouraged thousands of Vancouver voters from exercising their democratic rights,” says former TEAM city councillor Colleen Hardwick.

The political group also criticizes city hall for the selective use of turnout data of voting places that experienced no lineups or only minimal lineups.

TEAM is now calling for an audit, mandatory staff training, and procedural changes to guarantee equitable voting access in the 2026 civic election.

The report’s author, Thomas Kroeker, is an academic assistant at UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.