Legal Research

Voting card woes

By Shaunna Mireau

My husband and I received our voting cards for the upcoming Federal Election. Much to our surprise we were in different constituencies. It seemed a bit incongruous that we would potentially have different MPs and yet live in the same house.

I decided to check out the Elections Canada website for a remedy. I am happy to report that there is a great deal of information on the site, with the ability to lookup voter information through the voter information service. Unfortunatley, I now live on the ambiguously described line between two electoral districts. A down side to the maps linked on the voter information service is the lack of reference points. Highways and boundary roads would be a great addition to these maps for next time, or even a mashup like Google Maps, or something similar.

When you are challenged, you can call for information. 1-800-463-6868 is the number on the website, and a very nice person (after you get through various voice mail prompting levels) will give you another 800 number for your specific electoral district.

The lovely woman (Shelli from Elections Canada) on the final end of the phone was very helpful and informed me that a lot of people have incorrect information on their voter registration cards. Shelli also took responsibilty for calling me back when she needed more information that whe originally thought, and she called me on my cell phone, after getting the number from my children. Now that is great government service!

If you think the information on your card is incorrect, you may be right.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).