Canada Elections Act

PART 1

ELECTORAL RIGHTS

Persons qualified as electors

3. Every person who is a Canadian citizen and is 18 years of age or older on polling day is qualified as an elector.

Disentitlement from voting

4. The following persons are not entitled to vote at an election:

(a) the Chief Electoral Officer;

(b) the Assistant Chief Electoral Officer; and

(c) every person who is imprisoned in a correctional institution serving a sentence of two years or more.

Prohibition

5. No person may

(a) vote or attempt to vote at an election knowing that they are not qualified as an elector or not entitled to vote under section 4; or

(b) induce another person to vote at an election knowing that the other person is not qualified as an elector or not entitled to vote under section 4.

Persons entitled to vote

6. Subject to this Act, every person who is qualified as an elector is entitled to have his or her name included in the list of electors for the polling division in which he or she is ordinarily resident and to vote at the polling station for that polling division.

Only one vote

7. No elector who has voted at an election may request a second ballot at that election.

Place of ordinary residence

8. (1) The place of ordinary residence of a person is the place that has always been, or that has been adopted as, his or her dwelling place, and to which the person intends to return when away from it.

One place of residence only

(2) A person can have only one place of ordinary residence and it cannot be lost until another is gained.

Temporary absence

(3) Temporary absence from a place of ordinary residence does not cause a loss or change of place of ordinary residence.

Place of employment

(4) If a person usually sleeps in one place and has their meals or is employed in another place, their place of ordinary residence is where they sleep.

Temporary residence

(5) Temporary residential quarters are considered to be a person's place of ordinary residence only if the person has no other place that they consider to be their residence.

Temporary residential quarters

(6) A shelter, hostel or similar institution that provides food, lodging or other social services to a person who has no dwelling place is that person's place of ordinary residence.

Interpretation of ordinary residence

9. If the rules set out in section 8 are not sufficient to determine the place of ordinary residence, it shall be determined by the appropriate election officer by reference to all the facts of the case.

Members and persons living with members

10. Each candidate at a general election who, on the day before the dissolution of Parliament immediately before the election, was a member, and any elector living with the candidate on that day who would move, or has moved, with the candidate to continue to live with the candidate, is entitled to have his or her name entered on the list of electors for, and to vote at the polling station that is established for, the polling division in which is located

(a) the place of ordinary residence of the former member;

(b) the place of temporary residence of the former member in the electoral district in which the former member is a candidate;

(c) the office of the returning officer for the electoral district in which the former member is a candidate; or

(d) the place in Ottawa or in the area surrounding Ottawa where the former member resides for the purpose of carrying out parliamentary duties.

Part 11

11. Any of the following persons may vote in accordance with Part 11:

(a) a Canadian Forces elector;

(b) an elector who is an employee in the federal public administration or the public service of a province and who is posted outside Canada;

(c) a Canadian citizen who is employed by an international organization of which Canada is a member and to which Canada contributes and who is posted outside Canada;

(d) a person who has been absent from Canada for less than five consecutive years and who intends to return to Canada as a resident;

(e) an incarcerated elector within the meaning of that Part; and

(f) any other elector in Canada who wishes to vote in accordance with that Part.

S.C. 2003, c. 22, s. 100.

Residence at by-election

12. (1) No elector is entitled to vote at a by-election unless his or her place of ordinary residence on polling day is situated in the same electoral district that includes the polling division in which was situated the elector's place of ordinary residence at the beginning of the revision period established by section 96.

Address change within electoral district

(2) For the purpose of a by-election only and despite anything in this Act, an elector who, during the period between the beginning of the revision period and ending on polling day, has changed his or her place of ordinary residence from one polling division to another polling division in the same electoral district may register his or her name on the list of electors in the new polling division.