We’re ready for a mail-in ballot surge during the pandemic, Elections Canada says

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This article was published 28/07/2021 (1283 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Building on its experience with a pair of Toronto byelections last fall, Elections Canada says it is now in good shape to administer a national contest despite the lingering pandemic, and has lowered its earlier predictions of soaring demand for mail-in voting as the COVID-19 situation improves.

At the height of the public health crisis late last year, the independent and non-partisan agency anticipated that four to five million votes could be cast by mail in a pandemic federal election, compared to just 55,000 votes received by mail in 2019.

“Since then … vaccination rates are increasing, case numbers, for the most part, are down in most places, so we are revising that number, but we are anticipating an increase,” said Elections Canada spokesperson Natasha Gauthier.

Elections Canada has yet to arrive at its new estimate, which it will calculate based on research the agency has commissioned on Canadians’ views, expectations and behaviours about voting during the pandemic.

Nonetheless, the Elections Canada still has new measures ready to go to handle an uptick in mail-in votes.

Electors hoping to vote by mail in their own ridings will be able to apply for a mail-in ballot online, an option that was previously only available to those voting by mail from outside their ridings.

For voters worried whether their mail-in ballots will be received by their returning offices in time to be counted, special cardboard boxes will be set up at polling locations on election day. Those voters will be able to deposit their sealed ballots straight into the boxes without having to wait in line. Electors who are elderly, immunocompromised, or otherwise uncomfortable with arriving in person can also have someone drop off their mail-in ballot on their behalf.

The measures are part of a series of changes Elections Canada is making to safely conduct an election at a time when rules about congregating in public are constantly evolving.

“The pandemic situation is in flux across the country. Different jurisdictions, different provinces, even, I would say, riding by riding, the needs can be quite different,” Gauthier said. “So those conversations that we have with public health agencies are really, really key.”

Providing voters with single-use pencils was one of the new changes tested out during the Toronto Centre and York Centre byelections last October, something voters can now expect to see rolled out across the country.

Asking people to line up or wait outside polling stations to limit the number of people indoors may also be repeated, depending on local public health restrictions at the time of voting.

Provincial mandates will ultimately dictate whether voters need to mask up inside polling locations, although Gauthier said people will be encouraged to wear one. Poll workers will be wearing masks regardless of the local rules in play.

Face shields, bottles of hand sanitizer and Plexiglas barriers installed between workers and electors will also be a common sight.

Those measures, along with a more optimistic COVID-19 outlook, have left the agency confident it can pull off an election without the amendments proposed under Bill C-19, the federal government’s pandemic election legislation that was left on the House of Commons floor when the chamber rose for the summer.

The bill proposed increasing the voting period from one day to three, among other changes.

Speaking to Parliament’s procedure and House affairs committee in June, chief electoral officer Stéphane Perrault also called for changes to a Canada Elections Act requirement that signatures be collected by each candidate from 100 electors in their riding, each in the presence of a witness.

While the committee agreed to update the bill on that front, Elections Canada has been able to make some changes of its own in the interim.

Instead of a single form passed from elector to elector containing all 100 signatures, one piece of paper is now allowed to be submitted per signature, ideally through the agency’s online portal.

Clarification — July 29, 2021: This article has been updated to clarify that electors hoping to vote by mail will be able to apply for a mail-in ballot online once a federal election is called. Applications for mail-in ballots are not being accepted yet.

Find the Star’s federal election coverage here

Raisa Patel is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @R_SPatel