At their meeting held on October 11, the Citizen round table members addressed various challenges associated with election official recruitment. This is a daunting issue for our institution because we need to hire tens of thousands of people to work at polling places during general elections.
The members’ brainstorming sessions led to a number of creative solutions:
- Expand the recruitment pool, e.g. by creating a tax credit for companies that encourage their staff to work as election officials. In line with our proposed official recommendations, the round table members recommend that young people (16/17-year-olds) be allowed to work as election officials. They also believe the position of “officer in charge of the list of electors” should be eliminated.
- Develop new recruitment strategies, in particular by recruiting among groups such as volunteer associations.
- Make election officials’ work more attractive, g. by focusing on their civic mission and offering greater scheduling flexibility.
After reviewing 70 or so recommendations formulated during their first five meetings, the round table members deternined these ones were most important to them:
- Introduce a civic education course from the third year of secondary school.
- Regulate how the political parties protect personal information.
- Computerize the list of electors in polling places so voters can choose where to cast their ballots.
Read the meeting abridged summary to learn more. In the next few weeks, we will be publishing a more detailed report on the Citizen round table’s initial mandate.
The Citizen round table is a space for reflection and discussion. Its purpose is to promote citizen participation and to enrich our thinking on election-related matters. The role of the 12 members (all Québec voters appointed for a two-year term) is to provide us with impartial and non-partisan opinions on matters relating to Québec’s electoral system, with the interest of all Quebecers in mind.
