To Avoid a Bad Headache

In light of the American presidential election, we look at our neighbors with a mix of fear and empathy … and that should make us think.

Not only because of Donald Trump. (Be warned, his name won’t appear again in this article.) Americans are confronted with something else that is at stake, something that we may all experience: conducting a federal election in the middle of a pandemic could turn out to be a real headache.

Our electoral system is light-years ahead of our neighbor’s, and that’s good. Because, despite everything, ours is not entirely ready to face the music.

All we have to do is look to see the current controversy surrounding two partial elections in Toronto to imagine the challenge of organizing an election for all the districts in the country. The head of the Green Party just called to defer elections because of the pandemic.

Canada Elections* just formally confirmed it.

In a report given last week by Parliament – which, inexplicably, did not do much despite the importance of the situation – Canada’s chief election officer called for urgent changes to election law..

These changes are essential, said Stéphane Perrault, if the next elections are to be carried out smoothly.

Among these changes, the one that would have the most impact overall on voters seems unavoidable: moving Election Day.

In other words, no longer having the vote on Monday during a pandemic.

Ideally, voting would be permitted Saturday AND Sunday with 12 hours of voting each day.

The chief election officer listed many good reasons to justify such a change.

For example, he cited the fact that social distancing would be facilitated if there were two days for voting on the weekend (when more voters have free time), for a total of 24 hours. The current system provides a single 16-hour day, required to be on Monday.

As a result of this change, given that the election would not take place during the week, there could be easier access to election workers under 65. During the most recent federal elections, 47% of election workers were older than 60, and 18% were older than 68. It’s clear that this scenario is not feasible with COVID-19.

Add to that the fact that it will be much more difficult to find buildings to use as polling places. Especially if voting occurs during the week. A vote on the weekend could make life easier for organizers by multiplying the number of available polling places.

As with the change in date of voting day, the chief election officer hopes he can be authorized to determine when and how voting will take place in long-term nursing homes. Under the circumstances, it is not hard to understand why. Unsurprisingly, he qualifies this operation as “the biggest challenge for Canada Elections.”** In fact, he hopes to expand the powers that permit him to adapt the provisions of election laws in case of an emergency. Of course, it would be necessary to take special measures to protect the health of election workers.

Having clearly understood that our representatives have their hands full with managing emergencies linked to the pandemic, the chief election officer submitted, with his report, a model law that could be used to prepare the potential bill.

It’s what such times call for.

Once Parliament gives the green light to Canada Elections, it should take four months to put all the measures in place.

Yet the average duration of a minority government in the country is around 18 months.

And the most recent federal elections took place almost 12 months ago.

Procrastination is not a luxury we can afford in such circumstances.

So what are we waiting for?

*Editor’s note: Elections Canada is the common term for the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, the independent, nonpartisan agency responsible for administering federal elections in Canada.

**Editor’s note: This quotation, accurately translated from the original, could not be verified.