Election day is less than a month away and Canadians will have a number of options when they cast their ballots.
“We try to meet Canadians where they’re at,” Elections Canada spokesperson Matthew McKenna told CBC News.
Here’s everything you need to know about how to register to vote and exercise your democratic right.
If you voted in the last federal election and haven’t moved since 2021, chances are you’re already registered to cast your ballot this year.
“The good news is most Canadians already are [registered],” McKenna said.
But if you’re voting for the first time, you will need to register with Elections Canada. Alternatively, if you have moved since the 2021 vote, you will need to update your information. Registering or updating your information can be done in various ways.
“The easiest way is to go to our website,” McKenna said.
To register online at the Elections Canada website, you will need to go through a short series of questions and provide your name, address and postal code.
Another option is to call Elections Canada.
“If they’re not so tech-savvy or they don’t want to do it online, they can call us — 1-800-463-6868 — and the folks will help them walk through the registration,” McKenna said.
Voters can also go to any of the roughly 500 Elections Canada offices around the country to register.
“There’s at least one set up in every riding,” McKenna said.
Once registered, Elections Canada will send voters an information card with everything you need to know.
If you forget to register ahead of time, you can always do so at your polling station on election day. You will just need to prove your identity and your address.
Elections Canada provides a number of ways for voters to cast a ballot, but the most obvious one is going your local polling station on election day. There will also be four advance polling days, between April 18 and 21.
If you’ve registered ahead of time, you’ll get an information card by mail that will tell you where to vote on election day or during the advance voting days.
“That voter information card is going to tell them exactly where they need to go, the hours that their polls are open. It’s going to tell them about the accessibility of their polling sites,” McKenna said.
Having the voter information card may also be helpful as some ridings have changed for the 2025 election — riding boundaries are updated every 10 years to reflect population changes.
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When you vote, you will need to prove your identity and your address.
“For a lot of people, that’ll be one piece of government-issued ID with their address and a photo of them,” McKenna said.
If you don’t have a driver’s license, you can use a combination of a number of various documents to prove who you are and where you live.
Any official card with your name on it can be used to prove your identity, including a library card, student card or employee ID. Your voter information card can be used as proof of address, but so can a lease agreement or utility bill.
“It could be anything from a bank card and your lease or a hydro bill that has your address on it and a firearms license,” McKenna said.
Voters traditionally mark their ballot with an X beside their preferred candidate. But McKenna said as long as it’s clear who you’re voting for, any mark will do.
“Whether it’s an X or a check or a happy face, the counters will see that and they’ll say, ‘Ok, it’s very clear who this person was intending to vote for,’ and it’ll all be good,” he said.
If you make a mistake on your ballot, you can exchange it for another one.
When you register there will be an option to request a mail-in ballot, but there are some additional steps involved.
You will need to send Elections Canada copies of your ID — this can be done online or by faxing or mailing copies.
If you’re intending to vote by mail from within your own riding, you will be sent a special ballot kit with instructions to your home address. If you’re voting from outside your riding, you will need to provide an address where you will be able to receive your voting kit.
“It’s very straightforward. You enter a bit of information, you click the right buttons throughout the path and you’ll get sent a kit with everything that you need to vote by mail,” McKenna said.
For Canadians living abroad, they need to apply to join the international register of electors to receive a ballot kit.
Regardless, if you plan to vote by mail, McKenna said it’s best to do so as soon as possible.
“We can’t count the ballots that come in late. So for those that are voting by mail, [it’s] always encouraged to apply early, to make a bit of a plan, to have a few options in mind to get the ballot back,” he said.
The Tuesday before election day — April 22 — is the last day to register to vote by mail. Ballots that are received after election day won’t be counted. Voters can check online or call Elections Canada to check if their ballot kits have been sent or received.
Unlike regular ballots, mail-in ballots require voters to write out the name of their preferred candidate. A ballot with just a party name won’t be counted.
Anyone can vote at a local Elections Canada office at any time before April 22.
“Folks can vote as of today [and] really since the day the election was called,” McKenna said.
Voting at a local office is a helpful option for those who won’t be in their riding on election day or advance polling days.
“Many folks don’t know that you can walk in any day, ask for a special ballot and as long as you know the name of the candidate that you want to vote for, you can write it in on your special ballot and vote and be done with it,” McKenna said.
Voters can cast their ballot at any of the local offices, even ones that aren’t in their home riding.
Between April 13 and 16, Elections Canada will operate its vote-on-campus program at a number of colleges and universities.
While the program is primarily aimed at allowing students to vote, McKenna said the campus polling stations operate similarly to a local office.
“The nice thing about that program is that it’s open to anyone. It’s very similar to if you go to a local Elections Canada office to vote,” he said.
Elections Canada counts every ballot by hand — but where and when can depend on how the ballots were cast.
Votes cast on election day are counted at the polling station after the polls close. At least two witnesses are required to verify each ballot. Usually, these witnesses are representatives of local candidates, but any non-Elections Canada employee can be a witness.
“It’s quite a manual process. The ballots are unfolded one-by-one. They’re shown to everybody who’s present for the count,” McKenna said.
Once the ballot is confirmed in front of the witnesses, it is tallied. After all ballots are counted the results are phoned in to Elections Canada headquarters.
Ballots cast during advance polling days are counted at a local Elections Canada office. They are counted on election night but they can start being counted an hour before polls close if a large number of voters cast their ballot ahead of time.
Special ballots cast at the local office ahead of election day are counted at those offices on election night after polls close, as are mail-in ballots that were sent in by voters from within their riding.
Mail-in ballots from those voting from outside their riding, from abroad or using the campus program are counted at Elections Canada headquarters in Ottawa. They can be counted up to 14 days ahead of election night, depending on volume.
In the week following election day, Elections Canada will then verify the results.
“When you’re talking about hundreds of or thousands of polling locations and lots of results coming in, errors can happen. Whether it’s something gets misheard on the phone or somebody accidentally types in the wrong number on the keyboard,” McKenna said.
“The returning officer for each riding goes through the statements of the vote from every poll and makes sure that that’s checked against the records so that we can adjust for any little errors or mistakes.”
