Voters enter a polling station to vote in the federal election in Oshawa, Ont., on Sept. 20, 2021. Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images
Elections Canada will require voters to write in their preferred candidate’s name in the upcoming byelection in Battle River—Crowfoot, Alta., where Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is running for a seat.
Standard ballots will be replaced by a write-in ballot with a blank space where the voter must write in their choice, after more than 200 candidates entered the field, according to Elections Canada, who announced the changes July 28.
“The adapted ballot will feature a blank space where electors can write the name of their preferred candidate,” Elections Canada said, noting that “this will replace the typical list-style ballot, on which electors mark a blank circle next to the name of the candidate of their choice.”
According to Elections Canada, votes will still count if there are spelling mistakes, “as long as the elector’s intention is clear.” Voters who only write the name of the party of their candidate will not have their vote counted.
Elections Canada says that a full list of all candidates running in the riding will be available at each voting station to assist voters, and that voters can also “bring a friend, family member or caregiver to assist them” as well as ask for help from the election poll workers.
Although an adapted braille ballot and braille candidate list will not be available for advance voters with vision challenges, it will be available on election day, Aug. 18.
Elections Canada noted that the results of the Battle River—Crowfoot byelection may face delays in being reported and published due to the long list of candidates running for the seat.
Candidates running in the byelection have until the close of business day July 28 to submit their candidacy.
The surge in candidates in the riding is an effort by the Longest Ballot Committee protest group to deny Poilievre a parliamentary seat. The activist group has ties back to the satirical Rhinoceros Party of Canada. It opposes Canada’s first-past-the-post system and says a non-political body should decide election rules instead of politicians. Tomas Szuchewycz is acting as official agent for all candidates running under the Longest Ballot Committee in Battle River-Crowfoot.
During his unsuccessful run for the riding of Carleton in Ontario, Poilievre faced 90 candidates backed by the activist group, many of whom threw their hat in the ring in the last few days before applications for candidates closed. The previous MP in the Battle River—Crowfoot riding, Damian Kurek, voluntarily vacated his seat in order to give the Conservative leader a chance to reenter the House of Commons.
In a July 22 letter, Poilievre and Tory MP Michael Cooper, who is the party’s shadow minister for democratic reform, asked the Carney government to put forward several changes to prevent protest groups from flooding ridings with candidates. In their letter, they said the actions of the Longest Ballot Committee are a “blatant abuse of our democratic system.”
Poilievre and Cooper asked for legislation to be advanced that will require candidates get signatures from a minimum of 0.5 percent of the residents of a riding to file a candidacy, rather than just 100 people. It also asked that official agents only be allowed to represent one candidate and that signatories endorsing a candidate’s run only be able to sign for one candidate rather than multiple.
The Liberal government has said that it’s looking into the issue, and that it’s open to making changes.
“Our government shares the concerns about the longest ballot initiative and we are currently examining this issue,” the office of the government House Leader Steven MacKinnon has said, according to the CBC.
Paul Rowan Brian is a news reporter with the Canadian edition of The Epoch Times.