More than 200,000 special ballots not returned; watchdog worries many voters disenfranchised

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Every federal election, thousands of mail-in votes fail to arrive in time to be counted, and those people’s voices are not heard.

According to the latest data from Elections Canada, 209,893 of the 1,269,979 voting kits sent to electors were not returned. Last month, Elections Canada said it expected a surge in mail-in voting for the federal election, adding it could take days for every vote to be counted.

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, was among those who requested a special voting package but never ended up getting one. He says called Elections Canada to report the problem and ultimately went to vote in-person.

The day before the federal election, Elections Canada told NEWS 1130 anyone who had requested a special voting package but had not received one could go in-person to their assigned polling station.

“They’re still on the voter list, and they can vote in person on Monday at their polling place,” Andrea Marantz with Elections Canada said Sunday. “They’ll have to sign an oath that they did not receive (their mail-in ballot), and then they will be allowed to vote.”

Elections Canada cross-checks all mail-in ballots against voter lists to ensure no one voted twice.

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Conacher believes many ballots were not returned because people didn’t receive them in time, noting given the COVID-19 pandemic, some voters might not want to physically go to the polls due to health reasons.

“Those are the people who likely didn’t go and vote in person because they couldn’t or didn’t feel safe enough to do it,” he argued. “Those people were thwarted from voting.”

He says Elections Canada should have these figures and should release them.

“If it turns out they were in ridings that were decided by a very close number of votes and their votes could have made a difference to the outcome, then it becomes an more serious problem that has to be avoided the next time around,” he argued.

Related video: Over 5m mail-in ballots ordered, says Elections Canada

Elections Canada told NEWS 1130 it isn’t able to find statistics on the number of people who called to report their special ballot not arriving, nor how many people voted in-person after declaring they had not yet received the package.

“Elections Canada cannot speak to why ballots arrive late or not at all. Historically, there has always been a gap between the number of special ballots issued and the number of special ballots returned. Each elector is responsible for returning their ballot in time for it to be counted,” it states on its website.

Under the Canada Elections Act, the deadline to apply to vote by special ballot in the 2021 federal election was Sept. 14. The completed ballots must have been returned by election day, Sept. 20.

When it came to the 2019 federal election, 55 per cent of national special ballots and 61 per cent of international ballots were returned in time to be counted. Elections Canada says 11.1 per cent of national ballots and 11.8 per cent of international ballots were returned late, and were therefore not counted.

It says 33.9 per cent of national ballots and 27.2 per cent of international ballots weren’t returned at all.

 

– With files from Lasia Kretzel

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