Posted April 24
In the next provincial elections, will we be able to vote by mail?
Nicole Loranger
That’s an excellent question and you probably won’t like the answer if you want voting by mail to be generalized this year in Quebec. If the trend continues, that’s not going to happen.
It should be noted that currently, only certain groups of targeted electors can vote by mail: electors outside Quebec, those who live in remote regions or those who are in detention, essentially.
In 2022, that could change… a little! But not that much. Explanations: a bill was recently tabled in the National Assembly with the aim of “facilitating the conduct of the next general elections in Quebec”.
It suggests the extension of postal voting for other groups of voters, but the initiative is also very limited.
We are first talking about voters in residential facilities or living at home for health reasons, but only if access to the place where they live is limited due to COVID-19.
We also mention electors “who are more at risk of developing complications in the event of contamination with COVID-19 due to their state of health” and those who would be “in isolation ordered or recommended by public health authorities due to of COVID-19”.
“Perhaps amendments will allow access to be further expanded, but for the moment, it is still quite limited,” recognizes Julie St-Arnaud Drolet, spokesperson for Elections Quebec.
She points out that in 2006, “the Chief Electoral Officer had proposed extending postal voting to all voters and it had been refused by the legislator”.
Your question is also very relevant since in the most recent municipal elections in Quebec, there was also an expansion of postal voting, particularly for electors in certain health establishments. Result: there were some 45,000 requests. Of the number, 30,248 people voted.
Elections Quebec saw this exercise very favorably.
“The expansion of postal voting has proven that this modality must continue to exist, in addition to other modalities. It meets the needs of many voters. In addition to the clienteles who have experienced it for the 2021 general elections, postal voting could be offered to other clienteles who cannot vote in person or at a mobile polling station,” he added. we conclude in a report-assessment on this initiative.
Finally, during the most recent federal elections, there was a real craze for the postal vote. Nearly 1.3 million special ballots (a category that includes, among other things, votes by mail) were delivered to voters. In previous elections, just over 700,000 such ballots were distributed.
Ottawa, since 1993, allows all voters who wish to vote by mail. But for now, Quebec does not plan to take this route.
“It’s not easy to change the rules for administering an election, because it’s always very delicate on a partisan political level. It’s like redrawing the electoral map, which always gives rise to debate,” explains François Gélineau, holder of the research chair on democracy and parliamentary institutions.
Could expanding voting by mail also help increase voter turnout? “What I know from the literature is that there are no magic solutions, but the more options we give people, the better,” says the expert. Mail-in voting is certainly not the solution, but it is one more option. So it can only be positive. »