Today, we table to the National Assembly our Rapport annuel de gestion 2017-2018 (2017-2018 Annual management report) presenting a portrait of our work during this period, including the holding of general municipal elections.
General municipal elections were held on November 5, 2017. On this occasion, we trained and provided support to returning officers, created a Website devoted to the elections, carried out a national publicity campaign to encourage participation by the electorate, conducted an election simulation as part of the Voters in training program, in which 20,000 youth participated by voting for a mayoral candidate in their municipality. Two provincial by-elections were also held: in the Gouin electoral division on May 29, 2017, and the Louis-Hébert electoral division on October 2, 2017. Last, seven school by-elections were held over the year.
On March 1, 2018 we announced our new “Élections Québec” visual signature. Dynamic and current, this signature clearly reflects our values and emphasizes our primary mission, namely the organizing and holding of elections.
During this period, we successfully carried out several other major mandates. These included the creation of the Citizen round table and the Accessibility committee, as well as the most recent democracy education program, the small polling station. We are proud of all these projects, which enable us to get closer to the citizens, to allow them to be better heard and to promote the development of healthy democratic habits.
Recommendations of the Chief Electoral Officer
Every year, the tabling of our annual report is an opportunity for the Chief Electoral Officer to make recommendations to the legislator on changes to various election-related laws. These recommendations are based on concrete observations, the exchange of good practices, research and strategic monitoring activities. This year, the Chief Electoral Officer is making six recommendations:
- Amend sections of the Election Actregarding election officers:
- To entrust the recruitment of all election officers to the returning officers.
- To eliminate the position of officer in charge of the list of electors.
- To allow the hiring of persons age 16 and over.
- Amend the Election Act with a view to harmonizing the procedures related to the various types of voting.
- Reduce the period for revision of the list of electors when an election is held.
- Amend the Election Act to provide more latitude to the Chief Electoral Officer regarding the way electors are informed.
- Amend the Election Act in order to hold by-elections on set dates, at two times of the year, namely spring and fall.
- Amend the Election Act in the area of the protection of personal information as it relates to elections.
For more details about these recommendations, please refer to the corresponding chapter starting on page 126 of the report.
For an overview of our institution’s year (the period 2017-2018), see the section “L’année en bref ” and the chapter “Les faits saillants 2017-2018” (p. 21).
