John Smart and his wife have lived in the same Glebe home for more than 40 years. But this year, for the first time he can recall, they're not on the city's voter list.

"I'm actually quite upset," Smart said.

"I take voting very seriously, I vote in all the elections, we're on all the voters' lists. Then suddenly this year my wife and I are dropped from the City of Ottawa list."

Election Ottawa's website asks: Are you on the voters' list for the 2018 municipal elections?

For many, the answer appears to be "no."

I'm ON the list now, wasn't last week, but I guess they accepted my request to be added. —@MishkaOttawa

Glad I looked into this. I was NOT on the voters list and have just registered <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ottvote?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ottvote</a> <a href="https://t.co/PIRvhU38Ki">https://t.co/PIRvhU38Ki</a> —@SokoVino

It's not a new problem.

Every municipal election season, clerk's offices across the province complain about the quality of the voter information they receive from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), which compiles the data.

"This is the same process as previous elections," according to Tyler Cox, the city's elections manager. "The city provides its corrected voters' list to MPAC following the election, with the understanding that the corrections will be incorporated into the next list.

"The success of this process, or lack thereof, from one election to the next, has been the source of clerks' frustration."

So why is MPAC in charge of city voters' lists?

It dates back to the days in Ontario when only property owners were allowed to vote in municipal elections. And it's not as long ago as you may think — as recently as the 1960s, many renters were not permitted to cast ballots for their local representatives.

Even today, renters are often not on the list, especially if they have moved since the previous election, because MPAC doesn't have that information — though, the provincial agency does collect voter information from sources other than property rolls, including the national register of electors.

Cox said that while there are always anecdotal stories about problems with the list, his office has not heard about major problems so far.

Still lots of ways to get on voters' list

If you're not on the voters' list, you have until 4:30 p.m. Friday to apply in person, or midnight Saturday online, to get it updated.

But if you miss this week's deadline, it's not too late. Voters can fill out a printed form at the polling station, as long as they have the appropriate identification.

"As long as they're eligible to vote, it is easy to add their name at the voting place," Cox said.

This year, the city's elections office sent out voter notification letters earlier than usual to give voters more notice about advance polls starting Oct. 4, to make sure they arrived before a possible Canada Post strike, and for people to have a longer window to fix any incorrect information.

Smart said he filled in the forms last week and was on the list mid-week, although his wife was not as of Thursday morning.

"We're just wondering, how do taxpayers who have lived in the same house since 1973, how do they suddenly get dropped off the voters' list, and how many other people is this happening to without them knowing it?"