Press release no. 22 - April 7, general election - Close to 5 million electors are invited to the polls tomorrow

QUÉBEC, April 6, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Mr. Jacques Drouin, Chief Electoral Officer, invites close to 5 million electors to exercise their right to vote tomorrow, election day. They are electors who have not already voted at the advance polling from March 28 to April 3.  From 9:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., 21 617 polling stations will be open and ninety thousand election officers will be on hand to administer the election.  A total of 814 candidates are hoping to win the favour of the electorate.

"Our democracy is nourished by the elector's vote, since all of us have the opportunity to speak out and make a significant gesture" emphasized Mr. Drouin. That's why it is important to exercise this precious right, namely the right to vote." The Chief Electoral Officer wishes to point out that the efforts made over the last month to hire election officers have borne fruit and that everything is now in place to welcome electors all across Québec. 

Welcoming electors and exercise of the right to vote

Electors can use their reminder card received at their domicile to find out where their polling station is located. They can also consult the website of the Chief Electoral Officer at the following address: www.monvote.qc.ca, or contact our Information Centre at the following telephone number: 1 888 ÉLECTION (1 888 353-2846). Incidentally, employers must make sure that employees benefit from four consecutive hours to exercise their right to vote.  In addition, the Election Act stipulates that educational institutions are required to give time off to students who are electors. Québec's school boards will also have to give all students attending their schools the day off for the election.

To exercise their right to vote, electors must have their names on the list of electors. They must establish their identity after having stated their name and address to the deputy returning officer. For this purpose, they can show any one of the following documents: their health insurance card, driver's licence, Canadian passport, Certificate of Indian Status or Canadian Forces Identification Card. This formality will make it possible to confirm the identity of electors.

Disclosure of the results

Electors and media representatives will be able to obtain the results of tomorrow's election by consulting, beginning at 8:00 p.m., the website of the Chief Electoral Officer at the following address: www.monvote.qc.ca. Once on the home page, simply click on the "Preliminary results" icon.  The various pages will be updated regularly up until the end of the counting of the votes.

Moreover, media representatives will be able to obtain, in the following hour, a glimpse of the turnout rates recorded at 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. These approximate rates should be known shortly after having been ascertained in the 125 electoral divisions and will be accessible from the home page of our website.

A few statistics

The compilation of the lists of electors after the revision reveals that the final number of electors registered for tomorrow's election is 6,012,440. Of that number, 18,328 are electors outside Québec and 2,751 are inmates.  More than 118,000 changes were made to the list of electors during the revision and special revision, namely 59,224 registrations, 52,327 strikings and 7,168 corrections.

For more information on the April 7, 2014 general election, feel free to consult the website of the Chief Electoral Officer at the following address: www.monvote.qc.ca.

SOURCE: Directeur général des élections

Stéphanie Isabel, Information officer, 418 644-3320 or 1 888 870-3320, [email protected]