Press Release no 13 - General Elections of April 7, 2014 - Electors who are temporarily absent from québec have only 24 hours to register for the vote outside of Québec

QUÉBEC CITY, March 18, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Jacques Drouin, the Chief Electoral Officer of Québec, would like to inform persons who are qualified electors in Québec but are currently residing outside Québec that they have only 24 hours to return their application to vote by correspondence in the general elections of April 7, 2014. The application must be received in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer latest March 19, 2014 at midnight.

"A very simple step, and one that even may turn out to be pleasant, is to contact relatives and friends who are likely to vote outside Québec to remind them of the possibility that they have to vote by mail in the April 7 general election," suggested Mr. Drouin. The conditions of eligibility for voting for electors who are outside Québec are listed below.

It should be pointed out that a new and efficient way to register at the vote outside of Québec is to do so on Élections Québec website at http://monvote.qc.ca/en/edv_bvh.asp. An elector can therefore register online,  scan identity documents, and authenticate his signature.

The registration form may be downloaded from the Chief Electoral Officer's website at http://monvote.qc.ca and returned together with copies of the following identification documents:

• a document that contains the elector's name and date of birth (for example: passport, birth certificate, citizenship certificate or medicare card);

• another document that contains the elector's name and the mailing address of his or her domicile in Québec (for example: driver's licence, lease, electricity bill or any other official document that shows the elector's address in Québec).

All these documents can be sent by one of the following means:

This measure applies to electors who have left Québec temporarily within the last two years and who intend to return. To vote by mail at the upcoming election, they must complete the registration form and return it to the Chief Electoral Officer within the deadline. 

The two-year limit on absences does not apply to electors who are posted outside Québec to a position with the Gouvernement du Québec, the Government of Canada or an international organization mentioned in the Act, nor does it apply to the spouse or dependents of an elector, provided they are themselves electors. Electors posted outside Québec must provide proof of their posting in addition to the other supporting documents required on the registration form.

Eligible electors will then receive a ballot paper, sent to their address outside Québec, along with information they require in order to vote.  They will be able to vote by correspondence for a candidate in the electoral division in which they are domiciled in Québec.

To be able to exercise the right to vote outside Québec, the person must be a qualified elector – in other words, he or she must be 18 years of age on polling day, be a Canadian citizen, and have been domiciled in Québec for 12 months before the date of departure.  In addition, he or she must not be under curatorship and must not be deprived of voting rights.

SOURCE: Directeur général des élections

Denis Dion, Information Officer, 418-644-3320 or 1-888-870-3320, [email protected]