Chief Electoral Officer Perrault to Testify Before House Committee on Election Irregularities

Elections Canada Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault appears at the Foreign Interference Commission hearings, on March 28, 2024, in Ottawa. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Elections Canada Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault is being called before the House of Commons Affairs Committee to address irregularities that occurred in the April 28 federal election.

The committee has unanimously passed a motion that requests a review of any changes that may be needed in the implementation and interpretation of the electoral process, along with how the Canada Elections Act is enforced.

The motion, introduced by Bloc Québécois MP Christine Normandin, calls for a thorough assessment of the federal electoral process, including potential changes to the Canada Elections Act, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter. The motion passed without dissent.

Normandin said the Canadian public and party representatives can also testify before the committee if they “noticed something during the election.”

Liberal MP and committee chair Chris Bittle said the committee will seek to have Perrault appear on June 17, noting that “if there are other witnesses we will need to have that as soon as possible.”

Reported Issues

Perrault apologized on April 30 after returning officers closed polls in the northern Québec riding of Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik-Eeyou and nearly half of the region’s villages reported problems with the voting process. The Liberals won the riding, where voter turnout came in at 47.6 percent.

The Bloc Québécois is also challenging the election results in the riding of Terrebonne, where the Liberals won by a single vote following a judicial recount. A resident of the riding said she mailed in her vote supporting the Bloc weeks before the April 28 election, but it was returned to her on May 2 because Elections Canada put the wrong return address on the envelope.

While Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste had initially been declared the winner in Terrebonne on April 28 by 35 votes, the vote tabulation later determined on May 1 that Bloc Québécois MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné had won re-election, beating Auguste by 144 votes. A judicial recount completed by Elections Canada on May 10 found Auguste had won by a single vote.

According to Elections Canada, five mail-in ballots that were received late at the local office in Quebec’s Terrebonne riding were not counted. Each of them contained a postal code error. Sixteen other ballots were not sent to the local office and were instead returned to the elector because of an address error.

Elections Canada also acknowledged on May 7 that 822 mail-in ballots cast in 74 contests nationwide were misplaced at a returning office in Coquitlam, B.C.

“An initial analysis shows the outcome would not be affected in any of the 74 districts,” the agency said at the time.