The position of Chief Electoral Officer was established in 1965 and the Office of Elections P.E.I. was established in 1994. The Chief Electoral Officer is responsible for the fair and impartial administration of Provincial elections, Municipal elections, Plebiscites and School Trustee elections.
The Elections P.E.I. Office is a non-partisan Office of the Legislative Assembly and is responsible for the administration of the Election Act, Election Expenses Act, Electoral Boundaries Act, Controverted Elections (Provincial) Act and the Plebiscites Act.
The principal mandate of Elections P.E.I. is to inform and enable all qualified electors and candidates to exercise their democratic right and ensure their constitutional entitlement in elections as entrenched in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
As a statutory officer of the Legislative Assembly, the Chief Electoral Officer reports directly to the Legislative Assembly through the Speaker. The Chief Electoral Officer is completely independent of the government of the day and all political parties. The Chief Electoral Officer cannot vote in provincial elections.
The Chief Electoral officer is assisted in carrying out this mandate by the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer.
The Chief Electoral Officer and the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer are appointed by the Legislative Assembly on the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Legislative Management following a resolution of the Legislative Assembly supported by at least two-thirds of the members.
The first Chief Electoral Officer, G. Lorne Monkley, was appointed on July 13, 1965. Lowell J. Croken, the current Chief Electoral Officer, was appointed on May 10, 2006.
The first Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Layton Schurman, was appointed in May 17, 1973. Norma Palmer-Bowers, the current Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, was appointed on May 10, 2006.
