Evidence of meeting #14 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ballots.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Grant Jackson Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Does the security system include cameras, or is there just an alarm system?
Special Voting Rules Administrator, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
We can check on that, but it depends on the type of set-up, because as you probably know, all offices are not created equal. It's not the Tim Hortons model. It really depends on the landlord and what's available at the location.
Conservative
Grant Jackson Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Who would have access to the storage area? Would it be just the returning officer, or would other officials at each returning office have access as well?
Special Voting Rules Administrator, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
In terms of the ballots and special ballots, it's probably who we refer to as the service point supervisor. This is a role that oversees what we call the service centre, where we have service agents who facilitate voting by special ballot. Ultimately, they are responsible for overseeing the planning and deployment of all services that leverage special ballots.
Conservative
Grant Jackson Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
This is my final question. At some point in the process, other ballot boxes go home to a private residence to be secured. That's my understanding. Does that ever happen with special ballot boxes? They never leave returning offices.
Special Voting Rules Administrator, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
That's unless they are national ballots. Then they need to be shipped to headquarters ahead of day zero.
Conservative
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
No, they would not.
Conservative
Grant Jackson Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Thank you.
I yield the rest of my time to Mr. Calkins.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Ponoka—Didsbury, AB
Thank you very much.
The last federal election was $570 million. Do I have that about right? If you factor that out over 37 days, that's $15.4 million a day. Granted, some days in the election are more expensive than others for Elections Canada to prosecute the election.
Does it make sense, from a fiscal capacity, to extend the length of the election period to let a few hundred or maybe a few thousand more electors participate overseas? What's the cost-benefit analysis on that, if you've done one?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
We can easily provide the numbers, because we've had longer election periods. We had one in 2015, for example, that was 78 days.
The costs are largely identical. The difference could be an additional month of rent, depending on the date and the timing, for the RO offices. Also, there would be one week of additional salary for the limited staff in the office of a returning officer, but that would not have a significant impact.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Ponoka—Didsbury, AB
What percentage of the staff get paid for the entire duration of an election, compared with the number of staff brought on just for election day and advanced polling days?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
I'll guess a number, and my friend here will correct me. For one-day workers or workers working a few days, during the advanced polls and polling day, we're probably at around 200,000. For office staff, it's around 30,000, but that's probably an overstatement on my part.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Ponoka—Didsbury, AB
Okay. That gives me the ratios I need.
How did the 43,000 people overseas on the list at the start of the last election show up on the voters list?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
They show up on the international register.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Ponoka—Didsbury, AB
They're registered in an electoral district, are they not?
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
My friend will correct me. They do not show up on the list.
Michel Roussel Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Electoral Events and Innovation, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
They do not show up on the list that is used during the election. They are on the permanent voters list, but they are not released on the list that we provide to returning officers, candidates and political parties.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Electoral Events and Innovation, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
It's because they are registered to vote by special ballot, and they are not expected to vote at their polling location.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
That list is available through the portal to candidates and parties, so it's not a secret list somewhere, but the list that is used to administer in-person voting does not include international electors.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Ponoka—Didsbury, AB
That's fair enough.
This is the last question I have.
Madame Duquette, you were talking about the things you check when a ballot is returned. It doesn't really matter where you do it; the integrity of the process is what matters to me.
We have the bar code. You do the check at the time of the application. We have no idea if the person who filled in the ballot was the actual person. I understand that would be difficult to administer.
When that ballot is returned, is the envelope also checked for integrity?
Special Voting Rules Administrator, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Absolutely. We use a standard set of envelopes, and they have particular markings and a specific colour on them.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Ponoka—Didsbury, AB
If an envelope looks like it's been opened or tampered with, what do you do?