Voting by Canadian Forces Electors

How Canadian Forces Electors Vote

As a Canadian elector, you vote under the Special Voting Rules of the Canada Elections Act and use a flexible voting system that enables you to vote wherever you are stationed, either in Canada or around the world.

In the federal election, you can vote if you are a Canadian citizen and are at least 18 years of age by civilian election day. To vote at your unit's polling station, you must be a member of

• the regular forces;
  
  
• the reserve force on full-time training or service, or on active service;


• a member of the special force; or you must be
  
  
• a civilian working outside Canada for the Canadian Forces as a teacher or administrative support staff in a Canadian Forces school.

Statement of Ordinary Residence

When you enrolled in the Canadian Forces, or were hired as a teacher or administrative support staff for a Canadian Forces school, you should have completed a Statement of Ordinary Residence (SOR) form.

The civilian address on this form is considered your ordinary residence for voting and is used to determine where your vote will be counted.

You can make changes to your Statement of Ordinary Residence form at any time. However, the changes only take effect 60 days after your commanding officer receives them. If changes are made during an election, they will not take effect until 14 days after civilian election day.

You may vote only once in an election, and only for a candidate running in your own riding, which is determined by the address given on your Statement of Ordinary Residence form.

When and Where to Vote

Your commanding officer will post a notice, as part of the unit orders, advising that the election has been called and stating the days, times and locations for voting.

Voting by Canadian Forces electors begins on Monday, the 14th day before civilian election day and ends on Saturday, the 9th day before civilian election day.

During the voting period, the polls must be open on at least three days and for at least three hours each day. Your commanding officer determines the location of your unit's polling station and the time of the polls will be open for voting.

Special arrangements ensure that all Canadian Forces members serving in an isolated post can vote. As well, members who are away from their unit on duty, leave, or furlough may vote at any unit or base.

How the Vote Works

Check your unit routine orders and information posted around your unit to make sure you know where and when to vote.

Your commanding officer will appoint a deputy returning officer to be in charge of the polling station and to take the votes of eligible electors in your unit.

• At the polling station, the deputy returning officer will make sure your name is on the list of electors for your unit and that you have completed a Statement of Ordinary Residence form.
  

• After handing you an outer envelope, the deputy returning officer will ask you to write down your name, your riding's name (as shown on your Statement of Ordinary Residence form) and your unit's name on the back of the envelope. You then sign the outer envelope to declare that you are qualified to vote, have not yet voted, and will not vote again during this election.

• After making sure the declaration is properly completed, the deputy returning officer gives you the following:

• a blank special ballot;
• an inner envelope;
• the outer envelope that you signed;
• and a list of candidates, turned to the page with your riding's candidates.

• You then go behind the voting screen to mark your ballot secretly.

• Print on the ballot, the name or initial and surname of the candidate that you choose for your riding. If there are two or more candidates with the same name, you must also write the name of your chosen candidate's party, or the word Independent, if it applies.

PLEASE NOTE:
If you write only the name of a political party on your ballot, your vote will be rejected.

• Fold your ballot paper and go back to the deputy returning officer.



• Insert your folded ballot paper in the inner envelope in plain view of the deputy returning officer and seal it.



• Insert the inner envelope in the outer envelope and seal the outer envelope.



• Return the outer envelope and the list of candidates to the deputy returning officer.



• You may either leave the envelope at the polling station for the deputy returning officer to return to the Special Voting Rules Administrator at Elections Canada or mail the envelope yourself. If you choose to mail it yourself, ask the deputy returning officer to add sufficient postage to your envelope.

Your ballot must arrive at Elections Canada in Ottawa before
6:00 P.M. on civilian election day.

By law, late ballots cannot be counted.

Counting the Ballots

• After the ballots arrive in Ottawa, the outer envelope will be checked for completeness and sorted by riding.



• Starting with one riding at a time, election officials will remove the unmarked inner envelopes containing the ballots from the outer envelopes and mix them together unopened in a ballot box.



• The ballot box is then opened and the votes are counted.

These steps are taken to make sure your vote is secret. There is no way to tell who marked any of the ballots.

For more information

• Contact your unit.
  

• Pay careful attention to unit orders.
  

• Visit the Canadian Forces JAG Intranet site at http://jag.dwan.dnd.ca/welcome_e.html or through the Internet at www.dnd.ca/jag/
  

• Contact Elections Canada:

  • in writing at
    257 Slater Street
    Ottawa, Ontario
    K1A 0M6
  • by telephone at 1 800 463-6868, toll-free in Canada and the United States; at 001 800 514-6868, toll-free in Mexico; at (613) 993-2975 from anywhere in the world;
  • for the hearing impaired at TTY 1 800 361-8935, toll-free in Canada and the United States;
  • by fax at (613) 998-8393 or 1 800 363-4796, toll-free in Canada and the United States;
  • through the Internet at www.elections.ca.