The Director General of Elections of Quebec (DGEQ) appealed to candidates for vigilance on Thursday, recalling that polling places “must be neutral and impartial”, at a time when several parties accuse each other of trying to influencing voters’ votes near polling stations.
Posted at 3:09 p.m.
In a string of tweets published Thursday morning, the DGEQ asserts that “voters should not be subject to any pressure or influence when they go to vote”, adding that “the Election Act regulates the presence of certain people as well than partisan advertising at polling places”.
Élections Québec reminds that a candidate “may present himself at a polling place to exercise his right to vote and attend activities ‘related to the vote’, but that he may neither greet electors nor approach, nor say her name or the party for which she is running”.
A candidate cannot either “go to a voting table or the voting booth while an elector is exercising his or her right to vote” or “incite electors to exercise their right to vote in his favour”. “No one can use any sign that allows them to know their political affiliation or show their support or opposition to a party or a candidate. Any partisan advertising is also prohibited,” the organization insists.
The latter indicates that he will not “comment on specific cases on social media”, but is studying “any source of information that could help us enforce Quebec electoral laws”.
Attacks from everywhere
In recent days, several parties have criticized each other for trying to influence the choice of voters. In Sherbrooke, CAQ candidate Caroline St-Hilaire demanded that Québec solidaire (QS) call its volunteers to order, while activists allegedly distributed partisan leaflets near polling places. Solidarity, however, rejected these accusations and claimed to have organized “no distribution of leaflets in the voting pavilions of the University of Sherbrooke”.
In La Peltrie, in the suburbs of Quebec, the deputy of the Coalition avenir Québec, Éric Caire, also filed a complaint with the returning officer against his opponent from the Conservative Party of Quebec, Stéphane Lachance.
In two videos posted on Facebook, the latter invites conservative supporters to show their colors once they have voted. “The advice I’m going to give you is: get identified, cast your vote, and once your ballot is in the box and everything is registered, unzip your coat and proudly show your colors afterwards” , can we hear him say in one of these videos.
The PCQ defends itself by asserting that its candidate implied “obviously that it would be outside the polling place” that it was possible to display its colors “since he had just said that it is forbidden to appear in a polling place”.
In Laval-des-Rapides, Liberal MP Saul Polo deplores that his opponent Céline Haytayan behaves in a “disturbing” way, while talking with voters. The situation would have been reported to the returning officer of the riding, according to him, after the caquiste went several times – once even with a lawyer – to the polling station of Galeries Laval to “talk to voters “, despite the discomfort of officials on site.
“The inexperience of a candidate cannot be enough to explain all this, especially when she was already told the day before that she was outside the election rules. It is very worrying for democracy, “said Mr. Polo, who was made aware of the complaint recently.
Polling stations, “sanctuaries”
The multiplication of voting points with the addition of university campuses as places of voting could be likely to generate the multiplication of this kind of anecdotes, estimates the scientific director of the Research Chair on Democracy and Parliamentary Institutions of the Laval University, Eric Montigny.
“The multiplication of complaints comes from the fact that there may be more parties,” he adds. In a church basement, with a single access door, it’s easier to monitor than on a campus with multiple entrances. “The growing popularity of advance voting and therefore the extension of the period during which it is possible to vote could be another factor to explain the multiplication of incidents at polling places which must remain a “sanctuary”, believes Éric Montigny.
By email, the DGEQ specifies that it will report on the number of complaints received and files opened in its next annual management report for 2021-2022. “If the actions constitute an offense under the Elections Act, a statement of offense could be [donné] “says the spokesperson, Gabriel Sauvé-Lesiège.