Elections chief proposes rule changes to discourage 'longest ballot' protests

Canada's chief electoral officer is proposing changes to nomination rules to curtail the so-called "longest ballot" protests that have hampered vote counting in two recent byelections.

Stéphane Perrault told the House procedures committee last week that many of the candidates who took part in those byelections had their nomination papers signed by the same electors.

"This indicates that voters who sign the nomination papers are not supporting the nomination of one particular candidate but the idea of having as many candidates as possible," he said.

The committee is studying Bill C-65, which would, among other things, lower from 100 to 75 the number of signatures a candidate needs to collect in order to run.

Perrault said he's in favour of lowering the threshold but argued that "certain penalties" should be imposed on individuals who sign — or encourage others to sign — multiple nomination papers in an effort to get as many candidates on a ballot as possible. He didn't say what those penalties should be.

Dozens of candidates ran in two byelections held earlier this year — 91 candidates in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun and 84 in Toronto-St. Paul's. Elections Canada had to print ballots nearly a metre long to accommodate all the names.

Most of the candidates were linked to an electoral reform advocacy group called the Longest Ballot Committee. The group wants to put a citizens' assembly in charge of electoral reform and says political parties are too reluctant to make government more representative of the electorate.

The lengthy ballots resulted in a slow vote count and final results in both ridings were announced well after midnight. Perrault also has said the lengthy ballots pose problems for voters with disabilities.

Perrault said the changes he is proposing should make it clear that candidates shouldn't be disqualified because someone signed more than one nomination paper.

"Candidates should not have their nomination papers rejected or challenged simply because a person happens to have signed someone else's nomination papers, because candidates do not know which other nomination papers someone may have signed," he said in French.

When asked about the logistics of his proposal, Perrault said the verification process should take place after an election and not during the nomination phase. He said the goal is not to punish a "distracted" elector who may have signed more than one paper, but to deter people from signing large numbers of nominations.

"After the election, we can see if there are people who have signed a whole series of nomination papers and there the commissioner would then be able to take measures if they believe that appropriate," Perrault said in French.

Many of the candidates associated with the Longest Ballot Committee in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun listed the same official agent — someone who acts as a candidate's representative and handles campaign finances — on their nomination papers.

Protesters say proposals won't deter them

Perrault was asked at committee about imposing limits on official agents. He said that likely wouldn't deter long ballot protests.

"It is such a small task … that I think it could be easily done with different official agents," he said.

The Longest Ballot Committee criticized Perrault's proposals but said that if they're adopted, they won't stop their movement.

"We are disappointed to see Elections Canada take such a leading role in developing measures directly targeting us, a grassroots group who simply points out that MPs shouldn't be in charge of writing their own election and ethics rules," a statement from the group said.

"In any case, the new amendments won't succeed in stopping our campaign. We work smart, not hard, and if the rules say we need to get more signatures from more people, we will happily collect them."