Supply of Election Materials to Deputy Returning Officer

Materials to be supplied to deputy returning officers

119. (1) Before voting begins, each returning officer shall provide each deputy returning officer in his or her electoral district with

    (a) enough ballots for at least the number of electors on the official list of electors for the deputy returning officer's polling station;

    (b) a statement showing the number of ballots that are supplied, with their serial numbers;

    (c) the necessary materials for electors to mark their ballots;

    (d) an adequate number of templates, provided by the Chief Electoral Officer, to enable electors who are visually impaired to mark their ballots without assistance;

    (e) a copy of the instructions of the Chief Electoral Officer referred to in section 113;

    (f) the official list of electors for use at the polling station, enclosing it when possible in the ballot box with the ballots and other supplies;

    (g) a ballot box;

    (h) the text of the oaths to be administered to electors; and

    (i) the necessary envelopes, forms and other supplies that may be authorized or provided by the Chief Electoral Officer.

Safekeeping of election materials

(2) Until the opening of the poll, each deputy returning officer is responsible for all election materials in his or her possession and shall take every precaution for the safekeeping of those materials and to prevent any person from having unlawful access to them.

Polling Stations and Central Polling Places

Establish-
ment of polling stations

120. (1) Each returning officer shall, for polling day, establish one polling station for each polling division.

Multiple polling stations

(2) A returning officer may, with the prior approval of the Chief Electoral Officer, establish several polling stations for a polling division if, because of the number of electors on the list of electors for the polling division, the returning officer believes it necessary for the conduct of the vote, and each of those polling stations is to be designated by the number of the polling division to which is added the letter A, B, C and so on.

Division of list of electors

(3) The returning officer shall divide the official list of electors for a polling division into as many separate lists as are required for the taking of the votes at each polling station.

Certificate of returning officer

(4) To each portion of the official list of electors that is divided, the returning officer shall, before sending the portion to the deputy returning officer for the polling station, append a certificate signed by the returning officer in the prescribed form attesting to its correctness.

Level access

121. (1) Subject to subsection (2), a polling station shall be in premises with level access.

Exception

(2) If a returning officer is unable to secure suitable premises with level access for use as a polling station, the returning officer may, with the prior approval of the Chief Electoral Officer, locate the polling station in premises without level access.

Voting compart-
ments

(3) Each polling station shall contain one or two voting compartments arranged so that each elector is screened from observation and may, without interference or interruption, mark their ballot.

Table or desk

(4) Each voting compartment shall be placed on a hard and smooth surface and shall have in it a suitable black lead pencil for the use of electors in marking their ballots.

Polling station in adjacent polling division

122. (1) If a returning officer is unable to secure suitable premises to be used as a polling station within a polling division, the returning officer may establish a polling station in an adjacent polling division and all the provisions of this Act apply as if the polling station were within the polling division to which it appertains.

Polling station in school or other public building

(2) Whenever possible, a returning officer shall locate a polling station in a school or other suitable public building and shall locate the polling station or the polling stations in a central polling place, at a place or places in the building that will provide ease of access to electors.

Polling station in federal buildings

(3) A returning officer may require the officer in charge of a building owned or occupied by the Government of Canada to make premises in that building available for use as a polling station, and the officer to whom the requirement is directed shall make every reasonable effort to comply with the requirement.

Central polling place

123. (1) A returning officer may, if he or she considers it advisable, place several polling stations together in a central polling place.

Number of polling stations

(2) A returning officer shall not group together more than 15 polling stations in a central polling place without the prior approval of the Chief Electoral Officer.

Presumption

(3) On the establishment of a central polling place under subsection (1), all of the provisions of this Act apply as if each polling station at the central polling place were within the polling division to which it appertains.

Appoint-
ments at central polling place

124. (1) When a returning officer establishes a central polling place, the returning officer may appoint, with the prior approval of the Chief Electoral Officer,

    (a) an information officer to provide information to the electors; and

    (b) a person responsible for maintaining order.

Central poll supervisor

(2) When a returning officer establishes a central polling place that contains four or more polling stations, the returning officer may appoint a central poll supervisor to attend at the central polling place on polling day to supervise proceedings and keep the returning officer informed of any matter that adversely affects, or is likely to adversely affect, the proceedings.

Mobile polling station

125. (1) When a polling division consisting of two or more institutions is constituted under subsection 538(5), the returning officer may establish a mobile polling station to be located in each of those institutions successively.

Voting hours for mobile polling station

(2) The returning officer shall set the times during which a mobile polling station will be located in the institutions referred to in subsection (1).

Notice

(3) The returning officer shall give notice to the candidates of the itinerary of the mobile polling station in accordance with the instructions of the Chief Electoral Officer.

Provisions applicable to mobile polls

(4) Subject to the instructions of the Chief Electoral Officer, the provisions of this Act that relate to ordinary polls shall, in so far as they are applicable, apply to mobile polling stations.

Prohibitions

Prohibitions re ballots, etc.

126. No person shall

    (a) forge a ballot;

    (b) without authority under this Act, print a ballot or what purports to be or is capable of being used as a ballot at an election;

    (c) being authorized under this Act to print a ballot, knowingly print more ballot papers than the person is authorized to print;

    (d) print a ballot or what purports to be or is capable of being used as a ballot at an election with the intention of causing the reception of a vote that should not have been cast or the non-reception of a vote that should have been cast; or

    (e) manufacture, import into Canada, have in possession, supply to an election officer, or use for the purpose of an election, or cause to be manufactured, imported into Canada, provided to an election officer, or used for the purposes of an election, a ballot box that contains a compartment into which a ballot may be secretly placed or a device by which a ballot may be secretly altered.

PART 9

VOTING

Voting Opportunities

Manner of voting

127. An elector may vote

    (a) in person at a polling station on polling day;

    (b) in person at an advance polling station during the period provided for the advance poll; or

    (c) by means of a special ballot issued in accordance with Part 11.

Polling Day

Hours

Hours of voting

128. The voting hours on polling day are

    (a) from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., if the electoral district is in the Newfoundland, Atlantic or Central time zone;

    (b) from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., if the electoral district is in the Eastern time zone;

    (c) from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., if the electoral district is in the Mountain time zone; and

    (d) from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., if the electoral district is in the Pacific time zone.

Daylight-
saving time

129. The Chief Electoral Officer may, if he or she considers it necessary, set the voting hours for the electoral district so that the opening and closing of its polls coincide with the opening and closing of the polls in other electoral districts in the same time zone.

When polls lie in two time zones

130. When more than one local time is observed in an electoral district, the returning officer shall, with the prior approval of the Chief Electoral Officer, determine one local time to be observed for every operation prescribed by this Act, and shall publish the hours in the Notice of Election referred to in section 62.

By-elections

131. If only one by-election is held or if more than one by-election is held on the same day and all of them are in the same time zone, the hours of voting are from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Time to Employees for Voting

Consecutive hours for voting

132. (1) Every employee who is an elector is entitled, during voting hours on polling day, to have three consecutive hours for the purpose of casting his or her vote and, if his or her hours of work do not allow for those three consecutive hours, his or her employer shall allow the time for voting that is necessary to provide those three consecutive hours.

Time at convenience of employer

(2) The time that the employer shall allow for voting under subsection (1) is at the convenience of the employer.

Transporta-
tion companies

(3) This section and section 133 do not apply to an employee of a company that transports goods or passengers by land, air or water who is employed outside his or her polling division in the operation of a means of transportation, if the additional time referred to in subsection (1) cannot be allowed without interfering with the transportation service.

No penalty for absence from work to vote

133. (1) No employer may make a deduction from the pay of an employee, or impose a penalty, for the time that the employer shall allow for voting under subsection 132(1).

Hourly, piece-work or other basis of employment

(2) An employer who pays an employee less than the amount that the employee would have earned on polling day, had the employee continued to work during the time referred to in subsection 132(2) that the employer allowed for voting, is deemed to have made a deduction from the pay of the employee, regardless of the basis on which the employee is paid.

Prohibition

134. No employer shall, by intimidation, undue influence or by any other means, interfere with the granting to an elector in their employ of the three consecutive hours for voting, as provided for in section 132.

Proceedings at the Poll

Who may be present at polling station

135. (1) The only persons who may be present at a polling station on polling day are

    (a) the deputy returning officer and the poll clerk;

    (b) the returning officer and his or her representatives;

    (c) the candidates;

    (d) two representatives of each candidate or, in their absence, two electors to represent each candidate;

    (e) an elector and a friend or relative who is helping him or her by virtue of subsection 155(1), only for the period necessary to enable the elector to vote; and

    (f) any observer or member of the Chief Electoral Officer's staff whom he or she authorizes to be present.

Delivery of representa-
tive's authorization

(2) When a representative of a candidate is admitted to a polling station, the representative shall deliver his or her written authorization from the candidate or the candidate's official agent in the prescribed form to the deputy returning officer.

Represen-
tative authorized in writing

(3) A representative bearing a written authorization referred to in subsection (2) is deemed to be a representative of the candidate within the meaning of this Act and is entitled to represent the candidate in preference to, and to the exclusion of, any elector who might otherwise claim the right to represent the candidate.

Oath of secrecy

(4) Each representative of a candidate or each elector described in paragraph (1)(d), on being admitted to the polling station, shall take an oath in the prescribed form.

Presence of representa-
tives

136. (1) A candidate or the candidate's official agent may authorize any number of representatives of the candidate to be present at a polling station, but only two of each candidate's representatives may be present at any time.

Representa-
tives may absent themselves from poll

(2) A representative of a candidate, or an elector described in paragraph 135(1)(d), may leave a polling station at any time and return at any time before the counting of the votes begins and is not required to produce a new written authorization from the candidate or official agent or to take another oath.

Examination of list of electors and conveying information

(3) A representative of a candidate may, during voting hours,

    (a) examine the list of electors, provided that the representative does not delay an elector in casting his or her vote; and

    (b) convey any information obtained by the examination referred to in paragraph (a) to a representative of the candidate who is on duty outside the polling station.

Communica-
tions device

(4) A representative of a candidate shall not use a communications device at a polling station during voting hours.

Candidate may act as representa-
tive

137. (1) A candidate may perform the duties of a representative of the candidate, or may assist the representative in the performance of those duties, and may be present at any place that the representative is authorized to attend under this Act.

Non-attendan-
ce of representa-
tives

(2) The non-attendance of a representative of a candidate at any time or place authorized by this Act does not in any way invalidate any act or thing done during the absence of the representative if the act or thing is otherwise duly done.

Initialling ballots

138. (1) Before a polling station opens on polling day, and in full view of the candidates or their representatives who are present at the polling station, the deputy returning officer shall initial the back of every ballot in the space indicated in Form 3 of Schedule 1, entirely in ink or entirely in black lead pencil so that when the ballot is folded the initials can be seen. The initials shall be as similar as possible on each ballot.

Ballots not to be detached

(2) For the purpose of initialling, the ballots shall not be detached from the books in which they are contained.