Appendix – Report on the 43rd General Election of October 21, 2019

Section 181

(Instructions issued for the purposes of the 43rd general election only)

Purpose: Permitted the appointment of additional special voting rules administrators to facilitate the counting of the votes at Elections Canada headquarters.

Explanation: Section 181 of the Act provides for the appointment of a special voting rules administrator, the duties of whom include the supervision of the counting of the votes at Elections Canada headquarters.

In light of the high number of electors who voted under the Special Voting Rules, it became impossible in practice for a single person to accomplish all of those duties.

The instructions provided for the temporary appointment of four additional special voting rules administrators, who were granted the authority to exercise the special voting rules administrator's duties in relation to the counting of the votes at Elections Canada headquarters.

Sections 190 and 245

(New instructions superseding instructions issued at a previous election)

Purpose: Authorized the special voting rules administrator to extend the voting period for some Canadian Forces electors and some incarcerated electors.

Explanation: Section 190 of the Act provides that the voting period for Canadian Forces electors begins 14 days before election day and ends 9 days before election day. Subsection 245(1) provides that every incarcerated elector is entitled to vote by special ballot on the 12th day before election day.

Some Canadian Forces electors would not have been able to exercise their right to vote during the voting period set out in the Act because of their military duties. Similarly, some correctional institutions were unable—given the number of electors or security constraints—to allow same-day voting for all incarcerated electors who wanted to vote.

These instructions allowed the special voting rules administrator to authorize the opening of a polling station on one or more additional days to serve these electors. The additional days were required to be in the period beginning on the 18th day before election day, once the official list of candidates was available, and ending on the 6th day before election day, being the last day when electors could register to vote under the special voting rules.

Sections 227, 235, and 237

(New instructions superseding instructions issued at a previous election)

Purpose: Allowed electors a new opportunity to vote when circumstances outside the elector's control, such as a delay affecting the delivery to the elector of the special ballot voting kit, could have prevented the elector from voting by special ballot.

Explanation: The Act provides that electors whose applications for registration and special ballot have been accepted may vote only under the special voting rules.

Circumstances outside their control would have prevented electors from voting by special ballot—for example, when a delay affected the timely delivery to electors of their special ballot voting kits.

These instructions allowed the special voting rules administrator and returning officers to allow the elector to be given a new opportunity to vote and, when necessary, to annul the application for registration and special ballot made by the elector.

Sections 232 and 243.1

(New instructions)

Purpose: Authorized certain electors to vote at home after 6:00 p.m. on the 6th day before election day or after that day.

Explanation: Section 243.1 of the Act authorizes eligible electors to vote by special ballot from their dwelling places in certain limited circumstances. However, section 232 requires that applications for registration and special ballot be received before 6:00 p.m. on the 6th day before election day.

Certain returning officers did not provide registration and voting services to some electors who were eligible for home visits, despite prior confirmed arrangements. As a result of this oversight, these eligible electors could have been deprived on their right to vote.

These instructions allowed eligible electors who were affected by such oversights to vote at home after 6:00 p.m. on the 6th day before election day or after that day.

Section 233

(New instructions superseding instructions issued at a previous election)

Purpose: Permitted some electors whose pieces of identification did not include civic addresses to satisfy the proof-of-address requirements when applying for registration and special ballot.

Explanation: Some electors residing in rural or remote areas have no civic address by which to prove their residence; or, such a residential address is not stated in or on their piece or pieces of identification. When those electors are registered on the lists of electors and vote at polling stations, subsection 143(3.1) of the Act provides them an alternative mechanism allowing them to prove their residence.

These instructions extended the application of this alternative mechanism to electors applying for registration and special ballot other than in person.

Section 245

(Instructions issued for the purposes of the 43rd general election only)

Purpose: Allowed incarcerated electors who were observant members of the Jewish community to vote on a day other than a Jewish holiday.

Explanation: Section 245 of the Act provides for incarcerated electors to vote on the 12th day before election day.

During the 43rd general election, the 12th day before election day—Wednesday, October 9, 2019—coincided with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Some incarcerated electors informed the liaison officer for their correctional institution that they would be unable, by reason of their sincerely held religious beliefs, to cast a ballot on the 12th day before election day.

These instructions allowed the special voting rules administrator to authorize the opening of a polling station on an additional day in such circumstances. That additional day had to be as close as possible to the 12th day before election day and could not be after the 6th day before election day, being the last day when electors may register to vote under the special voting rules.

Sections 251, 252, and 267

(New instructions superseding instructions issued at a previous election)

Purpose: Allowed special ballot officers to set aside special ballots cast by incarcerated electors, and to omit these electors' names from the list of electors, if the incarcerated electors specified the correctional institution as their place of ordinary residence while not being entitled to do so.

Explanation: Each incarcerated elector is required to vote for a candidate in the electoral district of their place of ordinary residence. Subsection 251(2) of the Act directs how that place of ordinary residence is to be determined, and that place may be a correctional institution only in very specific circumstances.

Some incarcerated electors indicated a correctional institution as their place of ordinary residence.

These instructions allowed the special voting rules administrator to validate the information provided by electors with the correctional institution's liaison officer. The instructions allowed the special voting rules administrator to instruct special ballot officers to set aside unopened the envelope containing the vote cast by the elector in the wrong electoral district, where the special voting rules administrator was of the opinion that the elector's application for registration and special ballot indicated in error a correctional institution as the elector's place of ordinary residence.

Sections 267 and 277

(New instructions superseding instructions issued at a previous election)

Purpose: Allowed electors to be given a new opportunity to vote, if they wanted to, in cases where they had been registered by election officers to vote by special ballot in the wrong electoral district.

Explanation: Section 6 of the Act provides for each elector's right to have their name included in the list of electors for the polling division—and, by extension, for the electoral district—in which they ordinarily reside and to vote at the polling station established for that polling division.

Some electors were mistakenly registered by an election officer in the wrong electoral districts.

These instructions permitted electors who were registered and who voted in the wrong electoral districts to vote again in the correct electoral districts. They also authorized election officers to set aside, during the counting of the votes, special ballots cast by electors in the wrong electoral districts.

Sections 267 and 277

(New instructions superseding instructions issued at a previous election)

Purpose: Allowed electors to be given a new opportunity to vote, if they wanted to, in cases where it was believed that they could have improperly marked their special ballots because of erroneous information provided to them by election officers.

Explanation: The Act sets out the voting procedure that must be followed by an elector voting with a special ballot under the special voting rules.

Some electors voting by special ballot were given erroneous information that may have caused them to improperly mark their ballots. A ballot is marked improperly when the mark will lead to the ballot's rejection pursuant to subsections 269(1) or 279(1) of the Act. For example, some electors were mistakenly provided with an incorrect list of candidates, while others were mistakenly told that they could vote by marking their special ballots only with the name of the political parties they supported.

These instructions permitted electors to be given a new opportunity to vote, in cases where election officers had provided them with erroneous information that may have caused them to improperly mark their special ballots. When the elector accepted to vote again, the instructions also provided for the setting aside, unopened, of the envelope containing the special ballot initially marked by the elector.

Sections 267 and 277

(New instructions superseding instructions issued at a previous election)

Purpose: Allowed electors to be given a new opportunity to vote, if they wanted to, in cases where they had not signed the declaration shown on the outer envelope.

Explanation: An elector who votes under the special voting rules must, after having marked the ballot or special ballot, place it in the inner envelope and seal that envelope, sign the declaration shown on the outer envelope, and place the inner envelope in the signed outer envelope and seal that envelope. An unsigned declaration will generally lead to the setting aside of the envelope pursuant to paragraphs 267(1)(b) or 277(1)(b) of the Act.

Some electors in this situation inadvertently failed to follow this voting procedure.

These instructions permitted electors to be given a new opportunity to vote. They also provided for the envelopes containing the special ballots affected by the errors to be set aside unopened.

Sections 267 and 277

(Instructions issued for the purposes of the 43rd general election only)

Purpose: Authorized the procedure for the verification of electors' declarations to be conducted without opening the outer envelopes in certain cases.

Explanation: The special ballot voting procedure could eventually be modified to allow some electors to vote using a special ballot voting kit provided to them electronically. As part of this process, those electors would be required to print and sign a declaration form and to provide their own inner and outer envelopes. Amendments were recently brought to the Act to allow for this additional flexibility in the administration of the special voting rules. As a consequence, where the Act used to speak of the setting aside of outer envelopes, it now speaks of the setting aside of inner envelopes.

For the purposes of the 43rd general election, the declaration that had to be signed by electors who voted under the special voting rules was always printed on the outer envelope provided to the elector by the Chief Electoral Officer. Therefore, the election officers who proceeded to the electors' declarations verification procedure did not have to open outer envelopes to retrieve electors' declarations.

These instructions authorized an election officer who set aside an outer envelope to accomplish their duties by noting on the outer envelope—instead of the inner envelope—the reasons for setting it aside and by initialling the outer envelope.

Sections 267 and 277

(New instructions)

Purpose: Authorized the setting aside of special ballots marked by persons who were not qualified as electors.

Explanation: Section 3 of the Act is clear: only Canadian citizens can be qualified as electors.

A person who was not qualified as an elector, believing in error that they had the right to vote, made an application for registration and special ballot and voted by special ballot.

These instructions authorized the special voting rules administrator and returning officers, upon determining that a person who was not qualified as an elector had made an application for registration and special ballot and had voted by special ballot, to reject the application, to ensure that the person's name was deleted from the list of electors, to make a request to the Chief Electoral Officer to have the person's name removed from the National Register of Electors or the International Register of Electors, as the case may be, and to instruct election officers to set aside unopened the envelope containing the vote cast by that person.

Sections 269 and 279

(New instructions)

Purpose: Permitted the counting of special ballots found with the stubs attached.

Explanation: The Act requires, as an integrity measure, for the ballot to feature a detachable counterfoil and stub, both of which are printed with serial numbers. The designated election officer who works at a polling station or advance polling station must detach the counterfoil from the ballot before the ballot gets placed in the ballot box. During the counting of the votes, section 284 of the Act states that no ballot shall be rejected only by reason that an election officer failed to remove the counterfoil; it also sets out a process to be followed where a counterfoil remains attached.

The special ballot, which is used by most electors voting under the special voting rules, also features a detachable stub on which is printed a serial number. While the stub is meant to remain attached to the special ballot booklet, some election officers erroneously provided electors with special ballots with the stubs still attached.

These instructions extended the procedure set out by section 284 to the counting of the votes cast under the special voting rules.

Section 277

(Instructions issued for the purposes of the 43rd general election only)

Purpose: Allowed electors in the electoral district of Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Sœurs (Quebec) who did not sign the prescribed declaration found on the outer envelopes to have their ballots counted.

Explanation: Paragraph 277(1)(b) of the Act provides for the setting aside of the envelope containing the ballot cast by an elector who failed to sign the declaration found on the outer envelope.

In the electoral district of Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Sœurs (Quebec), an election officer erroneously failed to require nine electors to place their ballots in inner envelopes, and then in outer envelopes, resulting in those electors not signing the prescribed declaration found on the outer envelopes. As a result of the election officer’s error, those electors’ votes would have been set aside. The returning officer nevertheless determined that each of these electors had proven their identity and residence in accordance with sections 143 and 237.1 of the Act and was entitled to vote in the electoral district.

These instructions allowed the ballots cast by these nine electors to be counted.

Section 277

(Instructions issued for the purposes of the 43rd general election only)

Purpose: Allowed electors in the electoral district of Spadina–Fort York (Ontario) who did not complete applications for registration and special ballot before special ballots were issued to them to have their ballots counted.

Explanation: Section 232 of the Act requires electors residing in Canada who want to vote under the special voting rules to apply for registration and special ballot. The verification and counting process, set out by sections 276 to 278 of the Act, requires election officers to confirm that the information found in an elector's declaration (i.e. on the outer envelope) corresponds with the information found in the elector's application for registration and special ballot.

In the electoral district of Spadina–Fort York (Ontario), an election officer erroneously failed to require 30 electors to complete applications for registration and special ballot before issuing special ballots to them. As a result of the election officer's error, those electors' votes would have been set aside. The returning officer nevertheless determined that each of these electors had proven their identity and residence in accordance with sections 143 and 237.1 of the Act and was entitled to vote in the electoral district.

These instructions allowed the ballots cast by these 30 electors to be counted.

Section 277

(Instructions issued for the purposes of the 43rd general election only)

Purpose: Allowed electors in the electoral district of Thornhill (Ontario) who did not sign the prescribed declaration found on the outer envelopes to have their ballots counted.

Explanation: Paragraph 277(1)(b) of the Act provides for the setting aside of the envelope containing the ballot cast by an elector who failed to sign the declaration found on the outer envelope.

In the electoral district of Thornhill (Ontario), an election officer erroneously failed to require eight electors to sign the prescribed declaration found on the outer envelopes. As a result of the election officer's error, those electors' votes would have been set aside. The returning officer nevertheless determined that each of these electors had proven their identity and residence in accordance with sections 143 and 237.1 of the Act and was entitled to vote in the electoral district.

These instructions allowed the ballots cast by these eight electors to be counted.