Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was asked to leave an advance voting location on Saturday, after being asked to leave other polls on Thursday and Friday.
Instagram user 'marisaiacobucci' posted a photo of the mayor with the words, "I cast my vote early and look who was in my way. #notafan #ward17 #TOpoli #Olivia4Mayor"
Jackie DeSouza, a City of Toronto communications representative, later confirmed the mayor's Saturday visit to the J.J. Piccininni Community Centre in Ward 17.
DeSouza says an election official informed Ford that he could not be in the building and asked him to leave. She says the mayor then went upstairs, where he greeted members of the public and posed for pictures before he was again asked to leave by an election official. Ford did leave, eventually, after a senior citizen he had driven to the polls had voted.
CTV has also learned that City Clerk Ulli Watkiss sent the mayor a letter on Saturday to remind him of campaign rules under the Municipal Elections Act. That was after election officials asked him to leave polls, "where he spent considerable time talking to voters," on Thursday in Ward 8 and on Friday in Ward 7, according to the letter.
Provincial law allows candidates in polling stations on voting days, so long as they don’t campaign.
"As a candidate, you are allowed to stay in a voting place to observe, but you are not allowed to interfere with voters, attempt to influence how they vote, or ask a voter how they voted," explains an Ontario government guide to the law. "You are not allowed to have campaign brochures, campaign buttons, signs or any other material inside the voting place."
Ford indicated Sunday that he hadn’t done anything wrong.
"People want a lift, so I just drop people off," Ford told reporters. "If anybody would come up to me and say, 'take me to the polling station,' I'd bring them to my car and take them to the polling station."
In the Instagram photo from Saturday, he does not appear with campaign materials of any kind.
Rob Ford is running for a council seat in Ward 2 in Etobicoke after dropping out of the mayoral race to focus on his treatment for cancer. His brother Doug Ford entered the race in his stead, and has consistently garnered strong support in opinion polls ever since.
Sunday is the last day voters can cast ballots ahead of the Oct. 27 election. As of Saturday, 124,798 voters had cast ballots. In the 2011 election, approximately 77,000 voters turned out to advance polls, suggesting increased interest in this year’s campaign.
