Ottawa — Canada’s electoral agency was surprised by this week’s announcement that it could bring major changes in people’s voting methods, including three polling days.
The Liberal-NDP Confidence and Cooperation Agreement, announced on Monday, said the government would work with the Canadian Election Commission to find ways to make it easier for people to vote, such as extending the election date to three days.
Only a few weeks ago, Chief Election Officer Stephen Perrault submitted a detailed report on the 2021 election to Congress and was ready to propose future improvements.
The text of the Liberal-NDP Agreement also said the government would seek to improve the way mail ballots are processed and allow people to vote at their polling stations.
In the last election, some voters complained that their mail votes were not counted because they did not arrive on time or were lost.
“We had no prior knowledge of the commitments associated with the missions of the Liberal and New Democratic government agencies,” the Canadian Election Commission said in a statement.
Perot, who is in charge of managing Canadian elections, is busy preparing his own recommendations for improvement.
Matthew McKenna, a spokesman for the Canadian Election Commission, said: “(Chief Election Officer) is looking forward to discussing these possible changes with MPs and sharing his expertise in running federal elections.”
NDP MP Break Dejarai, who won Edmonton’s seat from the Tory Party after working hard to increase turnout on horseback, said the three-day vote was a worker with multiple jobs that could be difficult to isolate. Time to vote that said it would benefit many voters, including class people.
He says the expanded polling is “appropriate given how big our country is” and many Canadians may fly to go to work and not be at home on one polling day. I added that.
“We have seen the greatest indifference ever,” he added. “We need to fight the country’s indifference and regain confidence in the democratic system.”
In October 2020, Perot submitted evidence to the Commons Commission on the extension of voting days in pandemic elections.
He told the MP that he could spend the entire weekend voting, but he told the MP that it would be difficult to find a large number of people at the polling place on Monday. He also said that some polling stations may not be available on Monday.
“Let’s say you have access to a school in a particular area on the weekends. We will not be able to use it on Monday and will not be able to continue voting,” he told the Commons Procedures Committee.
There are two days of pre-voting during the week, as the Chief Elections Officer also suggested that pre-voting could be done on Thursdays and Fridays before the election weekend.
Perot’s report to Congress on the latest elections is expected to include proposals to prevent hate groups from tax cuts and getting a list of voters’ names and addresses by registering as a political party.
Safeguards make it difficult for militants to gain access to benefits such as airtime designed for political parties.
Recommendations to make it easier for indigenous voters to vote will be included in another Canadian Election Commission report after it was revealed that some indigenous people did not have access to polling stations on election days.
Marie Woolf
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