Canada Elections Act (S.C. 2000, c. 9)

Marginal note: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).

• Marginal note: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.

Marginal note: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.

Marginal note: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.

• Marginal note:Delivery of representative’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.

• Marginal note:Representative 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.

• Marginal note: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.

Marginal note:Presence of representatives

• 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.

• Marginal note:Representatives 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.

• Marginal note: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.

• Marginal note:Communications device

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