Elections Canada: 205,000 mail-in ballots were not counted
Elections Canada says more than 200,000 mail-in ballots sent to voters in the last federal election were not counted, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
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Those ballot kits which were late, cancelled, or marked as lost in the mail, totalled 205,000 and were greater than the margin of victory between Liberal and Conservative candidates nationwide — 190,790 votes.
“We are deeply sorry for any elector who was unable to vote on election day,” said Susan Torosian, executive policy director for Elections Canada.
Report On The 44th General Election — tabled in Parliament — shows ballot kits were sent to 1,274,447 electors who asked to vote by mail. Only 1,068,543 were returned and counted.
Of the 205,000 uncounted ballots, 90,000 were “returned late and not counted” and another 114,583 were never returned.
The report also identified other issues.
For example, electors in 274 of 635 First Nation reserves had to drive to another town to cast ballots and Kenora, Ont. didn’t have any election day polling stations in three First Nations communities.
In the riding of Mississauga-Streetsville, 1,589 special ballots from electors were found in a commercial mail room outside the control of a returning officer. Since those ballots weren’t received until after a Sept. 20 deadline, they weren’t counted.
As of Dec. 14, Elections Canada has received 9,410 complaints regarding its conduct during the election.
“The majority of them were related to accessibility, voter experience, long lines and interactions with poll workers, and voting by special ballot,” said the report.
