Suspicious robocall complaints hit West Nova

Suspicious election calls, known as robocalls, are now being reported in the riding of West Nova.

Elections Canada is investigating calls which directed people to the wrong polling stations – and may have been made in more than 40 ridings across the country.

Helen Opie, from Granville Ferry, worked for Elections Canada greeting voters at her local polling station lin West Nova last May.

"A woman came, quite agitated because … somebody had called and told her go out to — I think it was Mount Hanley, which is close to an hour's drive from Granville Ferry — and of course she found no polling station there," Opie said.

"It was puzzling and none of us could figure it out and I think now we know why."

Two more voters showed up later in the day with similar stories, she said.

At the time, workers at the polling station couldn't figure out what was happening, so they let it go, she said.

After hearing the national stories, she phoned Elections Canada on Monday to add her information to a growing list of complaints from ridings across the country.

'Difficult riding'

Robert Thibault, the former Liberal MP in the riding, said there were some problems on election day, but he thought they stemmed from mistakes on the voters list.

"It's a difficult riding, very widespread. Every time there's changes in the list, there are people who have difficulty finding their polls," he said.

"I haven't seen enough evidence yet in West Nova."

Thibault said so far, he hasn't received many calls.

"I heard one individual who gave me a call yesterday to tell me he'd received very alarming calls of people calling saying they were calling on behalf of the Liberal party, repeatedly and at odd hours," he said.

"I haven't heard widespread reports, but I'm looking forward to finding out, getting to the bottom of this … if there was that type of operation in the riding."

Thibault and Conservative MP Greg Kerr have faced off in the last three elections.

Kerr won the last election by 4,500 votes, but the first two elections were very close, so at the beginning of the campaign it was a riding that was being watched closely.

Kerr's office referred CBC News to Conservative headquarters, but calls were not returned.