Evidence of meeting #5 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was voting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Michel Guimond Bloc Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC
The act would have to be amended. It is silent on this matter.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
The act states that the Chief Electoral Officer may authorize an individual to be in the polling place. That is what I did on October 15. I authorized one representative and one pool camera to be present in the four or five ridings of the parties.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Great.
I'm going to go to Monsieur Godin. Please keep in mind, though, that there are members who have not asked questions.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
No, no, it will be a very short question.
This has to do with the question that was raised earlier. It is not about people who were already registered and who wanted to change the place where they voted. These people were registered properly in their own riding. They left to work out west for 20 days, followed by a 10-day rest period, for example. They came back during the seven days preceding the vote. They wanted to go to the polling station, just as anyone may, at any time. In the seven days preceding voting day, people may go to a polling station to vote.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
No. Let me come back to this, if I may. You were talking about the special voting rules. In order to vote using a special ballot, voters must be registered by the seventh day before voting day at the latest. If someone goes to vote on the sixth day before the vote and is not registered, it is too late to register.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
If people are registered, you are right, they may vote up to 6:00 p.m. Ottawa time, or until the local polls close. However, they must be registered before the seventh day before election day.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
People must be registered. These people were working on the oil fields out west, so they could not register. They came back by plane, and by the time they got here, they could no longer vote.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Depending on how much time was left, or if there were an advance polling day, the only other option was for these people to vote on election day. That is something that should be included in the act.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Thanks very much.
There have been some good suggestions here today, Chair. I like the one offered by my colleague, Ms. Jennings.
We had a specific situation in Central Nova at St. Francis Xavier University. They were able to get a special ballot at St. FX, but it was in Stellarton, which is about a 40-minute drive away. So there was a disincentive, or we made it very difficult for the students to actually vote on election day. I think the suggestion that was put forward about having the special polls right in the universities has merit. Obviously there will be an additional cost, but nonetheless, if we're trying to encourage young people and university students to vote, sometimes you have to bring the mountain to Mohammed.
On page 63 you identify that you're in the process of doing surveys and studies with electors and what not. Do you focus specifically on that 40% who are not showing up, the 40% who are not casting ballots, or is there a broader base? Is it a general survey that you do, and could you give me some kind of perspective as to what's involved in the survey? What is it you try to get from the survey? Is it just reasons they didn't vote, or what motivated them to vote? Can you give me some kind of context there?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
The survey involved 3,500 electors from across Canada. There is over-sampling of certain groups, but again there's a methodology to ensure the integrity of the findings of the survey. It covers a wide range of areas. One is turnout. It also looks at service, and whether our information campaign was effective, and the factors that trigger their involvement or their lack of involvement. So we are trying to understand the causes or factors at play for why those who voted voted and those who did not vote did not vote.
It also looks at another area. There are a few questions that look at their approach to technology and whether, if there were technology available--something like e-voting--it would have influenced their decision to vote or not. So a wide range of topics are covered.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
I think some measures have been undertaken in the last couple of elections that have made it easier for people to vote. But I continue to be perplexed as to why people aren't exercising their right. It's been frustrating all around, and I'm sure when you speak to people, the comeback ranges from “they're all the same and none of them are any different” to those foolish bail-out excuses as to why not.
I think it's important to see if there's something within the mechanics of the voting procedure. I really think some good measures have been undertaken so far, but I think we have to challenge ourselves to look a little bit differently at whatever it is that would get them out and get them engaged. As Marlene suggested, I think that's where we have to go with it.
We have that pool of 40% of the voters who didn't show up. We could be drilling down on that 40% to find out what it was that didn't motivate them or that precluded them from voting, or what barrier there was to casting a ballot. I think we have to glean that from that group anyway.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
The survey will probe a little the reasons why those who did not vote did not do so. As I mentioned earlier, I think we need to carry out a fair bit more research to fully understand the factors that are at play in the decision not to vote and how those factors relate to one another.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
You have about 30 seconds if you'd like to get another quick one in.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
It's not a question. It's just the piece of information we had discussed at our meeting about the software program some of my volunteers had developed. Instead of using the bingo cards, we had a program that we programmed into cell phones, which was using the Internet to connect with our computers at my committee room. They just had to go down the list and punch off the voter number of the person who had voted, and it automatically and instantly communicated with our program in our committee room. So we had rapid updates saying voter number 5 in poll number such-and-such had just voted, and it reduced the number of volunteers that we needed.
I have asked the president of my association and chief campaign organizer to contact Elections Canada to provide that information to you, because it may be of use to you and ultimately to other members who are planning on running.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
Thank you very much, Chair.
I'll endorse my colleagues in welcoming you for the two hours that you're spending with us.
We've talked a lot about the problems we had in the last election. I agree with my colleagues that there were some horrendous problems--and we've talked about it privately--about confirming the identity of the people, especially the elderly people, in my riding. I think I might have a partial solution, if we can talk about solutions for a bit.
My riding is made up of a city of about 45,000 people and a rural area of five or six municipalities of probably 3,000 or 4,000 people each. It really works well in the city of 45,000 because there's an election office there where anybody can go in and vote at any time. There's no excuse for not voting, because you can go there 12 hours a day, I think it is, for 35 days. I wonder if it wouldn't be effective and economical if we were to have a one-person or two-person office out in those little municipalities for the same time. They would accommodate the people in that area.
What happens in my case—it's about an hour's drive at the furthest point—is that if the person happens to be going into the larger community for whatever reason, to see the doctor or something, they'll take advantage of the chance to vote, but other than that, they're not going to make the special trip into the larger community to vote. However, if they were just going down the street, they would.
I think that's money you would save. If you can get the people to spread out the vote, it makes your life a heck of a lot easier on election day. Anyway, it's something I think you'd want to think about. In the major cities I don't think it's an issue, because in every riding you probably have Elections Canada offices within a few miles.
The other thing is something that my CFO has asked me to bring to your attention. I think I lost a friend over this last election, because my CFO is a chartered accountant, with 35 years of experience in the business, and he's never seen anything like the report that he's required to file with Elections Canada now. This is his second time around, and that's why I think I've lost a friend for sure. He agreed, but I had to convince him to do it. On the report he has to complete, the software, he says—and I don't know, because I don't understand it—is the most unfriendly software that he's ever seen anywhere. I really think that maybe you should communicate; you do have a list of the CFOs, I'm sure.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
The official agents? Yes.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
Yes, the official agents. Maybe you should get some feedback from them. Like I said, I don't know anything about it.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Yes, we are getting feedback. We ran information sessions with official agents. This is interesting, because during those sessions the feedback we were getting is that.... As I mentioned in the report, there's a regulatory burden at play here that needs to be addressed, but in terms of the electronic system to file returns, the feedback we got was positive. In fact, I will share that with the committee at some time.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
Well, as for his experience, you can take it for what it is and maybe you can talk to others.
