Procedure and House Affairs

The Procedure and House Affairs Committee met to study the administration of the 45th general election, hearing from Stéphane Perrault, Chief Electoral Officer, and Michel Roussel, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, both from the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer.

Mr. Perrault reported that the election was an overall success, with no IT breaches or interference, and that voter turnout reached 69%, the highest since 1993. He noted a record 44% of voters cast ballots before election day, putting pressure on infrastructure, and that a 36-day snap campaign may not be sufficient to meet evolving service needs. He highlighted challenges in Nunavik, where some electors could not vote due to a lack of engagement, and announced a fact-finding inquiry with results to be published in the fall. He also recommended requiring unique signatures for candidate nominations to address the "longest ballot" tactic, proposing a fine rather than invalidating nominations, and noted that he received no commitment from the minister on this change.

Mr. Perrault explained that Elections Canada monitored 60 platforms in 22 languages to counter disinformation, such as the false narrative that pencils were provided to erase votes, and used pre-prepared resources like "ElectoFacts" to respond quickly. He noted that the vote on campus program served 76,000 electors despite the election coinciding with the end of the spring semester, and that advance voting services in Indigenous communities increased by 127%. He disagreed with the suggestion to require in-person candidate interviews, citing the challenge of large districts like Nunavut.

Mr. Perrault stated that special ballot errors, such as those in Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam where 822 ballots were not counted, were due to confusion with provincial rules, and that changes to controls and training are being implemented. He emphasized that while some ballots are always returned late, the rate improved overall, and that contacting electors about errors is not guaranteed to fix the issue. He declined to comment on the specific Terrebonne case, which is before the courts, but noted that incident reports are standardized and documented.

Mr. Perrault said that the Elections Canada website crashed on election night due to a firewall failure from a private partner, not a cyber-attack, and that the provider has since increased capacity and doubled firewalls. He explained that election night results are preliminary and can vary from validated results due to human error, and that the validation process is a legal safeguard. He committed to providing a breakdown of electoral districts where overseas ballots were counted.

Mr. Perrault noted that the quality of the voters list was slightly lower than in fixed-date elections, but that 1.3 million electors updated their information during the election. He said that returning officers face increasing difficulty securing polling locations, particularly schools, due to longer lease negotiations and parental concerns, and that this contributed to late mailing of voter information cards. He suggested that digital voter information cards could supplement paper ones in the future.

Mr. Perrault recommended expanding rules against foreign interference and non-monetary contributions to third parties, and supported labelling synthetic content and updating impersonation rules to address AI threats. He opposed online voting at the federal level, citing the need for paper ballots to maintain trust, and said tabulation is not currently being considered. He also noted that prepaid payment products and cryptocurrency should be banned from political financing due to a lack of transparency, and that returning officers' addresses should not be published for safety reasons, as was proposed in Bill C-65.