Liberal promise to explore three-day polling day took Elections Canada by surprise

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OTTAWA — The physique in command of administering Canada’s elections was taken unexpectedly by an announcement that there could possibly be main reforms coming to the way in which individuals vote, together with a three-day-long polling day.

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The Liberal-NDP confidence and provide settlement, in particulars revealed on Tuesday, mentioned the federal government would work with Elections Canada to discover methods to make it simpler for individuals to vote, together with probably extending election day to 3 days.

It comes simply weeks earlier than Stephane Perrault, the chief electoral officer, is poised to current an in depth report on the 2021 election to Parliament, with suggestions for enhancements sooner or later.

The textual content of the Liberal-NDP accord additionally mentioned the federal government would discover enhancements to the way in which mail-in ballots are processed, and take into account permitting individuals to vote at any polling station of their driving.

On the final election, some voters complained their mail-in votes weren’t counted as a result of they didn’t arrive on time or had been misplaced.

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Elections Canada mentioned in a press release it “had no prior data of the Liberal social gathering and New Democratic Social gathering commitments associated to the company’s mandate.”

Perrault, who’s in command of administering Canada’s elections, has been busy getting ready his personal suggestions for enhancements.

“For any future adjustments to the (Elections) Act, will probably be necessary to take time to correctly take into account their potential implications for the administration of future elections,” mentioned Matthew McKenna, a spokesman for Elections Canada. “The (chief electoral officer) would stay up for discussing these potential adjustments with parliamentarians, and sharing his experience in regards to the administration of federal elections.”

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NDP MP Blake Desjarlais, who received his Edmonton seat from the Tories after working arduous to spice up voter turnout within the driving, mentioned three-day polling would profit many citizens, together with working-class individuals with a number of jobs who would possibly discover it arduous to carve out time to vote.

He mentioned expanded polling is “acceptable contemplating how massive our nation is,” including that many Canadians fly to get to work and may not be dwelling on a single polling day.

“We now have seen apathy at an all-time excessive,” he added. “We have to fight apathy on this nation and restore belief in our democratic establishments.”

In October 2020 Perrault gave proof to a Commons committee about extending voting days in a pandemic election.

He informed MPs that a complete weekend could possibly be dedicated to voting, however mentioned it might be tough to seek out massive numbers of individuals to workers polling stations on Monday as properly. He additionally mentioned that some polling stations may not be obtainable on Monday.

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“Let’s say we’ve got entry to a faculty in a sure space over the weekend. We will be unable to apply it to Monday and will be unable to proceed voting,” he informed the Commons process committee.

The chief electoral officer additionally instructed that advance voting could possibly be held on the Thursday and Friday earlier than an election weekend, so there are two days of advance voting in the course of the week.

Perrault’s report back to parliament on the latest election is predicted to comprise proposals to cease hate teams from getting tax breaks and lists of voters’ names and addresses by registering as political events.

The safeguards would make it tougher for extremists to achieve entry to advantages, together with broadcast time, designed for political events.

Suggestions on making it simpler for Indigenous voters to vote — after it emerged that some First Nations didn’t have entry to polling stations on election day — will probably be included in a separate Elections Canada report.