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

Marginal note:Secrecy during and after poll

• 164. (1) Every candidate, election officer or representative of a candidate present at a polling station or at the counting of the votes shall maintain the secrecy of the vote.

• Marginal note:Secrecy at the poll

  (2) Except as provided by this Act, no elector shall

  • (a) on entering the polling station and before receiving a ballot, openly declare for whom the elector intends to vote;

  • (b) show his or her ballot, when marked, so as to allow the name of the candidate for whom the elector has voted to be known; or

  • (c) before leaving the polling station, openly declare for whom the elector has voted.

• Marginal note:Procedure in case of contravention of secrecy

  (3) It is the duty of each deputy returning officer to draw the attention of any elector to an offence that the elector commits in contravening subsection (2) and to the punishment to which the elector is liable, but the elector shall be allowed to vote in the usual way if he or she has not already done so.

Marginal note:Prohibition — use of loudspeakers on polling day

165. No person shall use a loudspeaking device within hearing distance of a polling station on polling day for the purpose of promoting or opposing a political party that is listed on the ballot under the name of a candidate or the election of a candidate.

Marginal note:Prohibitions — emblems, etc., in polling station

• 166. (1) No person shall

  • (a) post or display in, or on the exterior surface of, a polling place any campaign literature or other material that could be taken as an indication of support for or opposition to a political party that is listed on the ballot under the name of a candidate or the election of a candidate;

  • (b) while in a polling station, wear any emblem, flag, banner or other thing that indicates that the person supports or opposes any candidate or political party that is listed on the ballot under the name of a candidate, or the political or other opinions entertained, or supposed to be entertained, by the candidate or party; and

  • (c) in a polling station or in any place where voting at an election is taking place, influence electors to vote or refrain from voting or vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (2) Despite paragraph (1)(b), a representative of a candidate in a polling station may, in the manner authorized by the Chief Electoral Officer, wear a badge identifying his or her function and the name of the political party that is listed on the ballot under the name of the candidate.

Marginal note:Prohibitions re ballots, etc.

• 167. (1) No person shall

  • (a) apply for a ballot in a name that is not his or her own;

  • (b) use a forged ballot;

  • (c) knowing that he or she is without authority under this Act to do so, provide a ballot to any person; or

  • (d) knowing that he or she is without authority under this Act to do so, have a ballot in his or her possession.

• Marginal note:Other prohibitions

  (2) No person shall wilfully

  • (a) alter, deface or destroy a ballot or the initials of the deputy returning officer signed on a ballot;

  • (b) put or cause to be put into a ballot box a ballot or other paper otherwise than as provided by this Act;

  • (c) take a ballot out of the polling station; or

  • (d) destroy, take, open or otherwise interfere with a ballot box or book or packet of ballots.

• Marginal note:Prohibitions — deputy returning officers

  (3) No deputy returning officer shall

  • (a) with the intent 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, put his or her initials on the back of any paper purporting to be or capable of being used as a ballot at an election; or

  • (b) place on any ballot any writing, number or mark, with intent that the elector to whom the ballot is to be, or has been, given may be identified.