What you need to know to vote in Canada's federal election

With the federal election looming on Oct. 21, here's what you need to know before you vote. This guide will be updated and more answers will be added as we get closer to election day.

How do I know where to vote?

Each voter is assigned a specific polling station. You can find yours on your voter information card or search by your postal code here.

Am I eligible?

There are only a few requirements to vote. You must be:

• A Canadian citizen.
• 18 or older on election day.
• Registered to vote.

If you aren't registered now, you can always do it when you go in to vote. Just make sure you bring the proper documents.

• Federal election results: Watch the numbers come in or dive deeper with our maps and analysis.

So what do I need to bring?

You'll need something that proves your identity and your current address. The easiest ID to bring is a driver's licence but any ID that's got your photo, name and address on it and has been issued by the federal government, the province or your municipality will do. 

If you don't have those, you can bring two other pieces of ID; both must have your name on it and one has to have your current address. This includes passports, blood donor cards, birth certificates, band memberships and dozens of other options, which you can find here.

If you don't have any ID, you can get someone to vouch for you. But they must be able to prove their own identity and address.

• Compare the party platforms on these top election issues

What if I didn't get my voter information card?

Elections Canada sent out around 26.9 million voter information cards. If you are on the voters list, you should have received yours by Oct. 4.

If you didn't get it, no worries. You don't need it to vote. You can use a piece of ID with your name and address on it — or a combination of ID pieces and vouching as mentioned above — to vote. Here's all the forms of identification you can use.

How do I know my riding?

There are 338 ridings, each represented by a member of Parliament, who you will help choose with your vote. The ridings are distributed between provinces and territories ⁠— you can find yours here.

Your federal riding isn't necessarily the same one you voted in during the provincial or territorial election (with the exception of parts of Ontario), so make sure you double-check you're in the proper riding for your address.

Can I vote if I'm homeless?

Yes, but you will have to show a piece of ID with your name and provide an address where you've spent time. If that's a homeless shelter or a drop-in centre, you can get them to fill out a letter of confirmation of residence and use that.

If you don't have an ID, you can get someone to vouch for you. But they need to have their own valid ID with current address.

How do I vote if I live in a remote community?

Elections Canada says it has polling stations already planned for many remote locations.

But for the most remote places, like lighthouses and fly-in communities, it relies on service agents. These agents travel with the ballots to these locations in advance of election day and often wait until residents are finished voting so they can make sure the ballots get back safe.

• Voter guide: How to vote if you have a disability

What if I can't make it on election day? 

There were four days of advance polls on Oct. 11, 12, 13 and 14. You could have also voted at your local Elections Canada office during most of the election period or voted by mail. But it's now too late to do any of these things.

How do I vote if I'm a student? 

It depends on which riding you choose to cast a vote. If you consider your student housing (including residence buildings) your home and have valid identification confirming the address, you can vote in that riding at a local polling station.

Applying to vote by mail or at the local Elections Canada office has now ended. Elections Canada also had polling stations at 115 different campuses across the country from Oct. 5 to 9.

How do I vote if I'm working away from home, still in Canada? 

It's similar to how students can vote; you have to decide what riding you consider home. If you have identification which proves your address while away at work, you can vote there locally.

Again, applying for a mail-in ballot and voting at an Elections Canada office is now finished.

I'm a Canadian citizen living abroad who hasn't been allowed to vote in past elections. Am I allowed to vote this time?

Yes. Legislation changes — and a Supreme Court vote — have dropped restrictions on expats. Previously, if you lived out of the country for more than five years, you couldn't vote. Now, all Canadians living abroad can vote, as long as you verify your identity and the previous address where you lived in Canada. That's the riding you'll be voting in.

You could have applied to get on the international voters' register and get a mail-in ballot, but it's now too late.

The only way for expats to vote now would be to come back to Canada and do so in person on election day. If you choose this route, standard ID rules apply. Elections Canada says you need to show ID, which proves you have a residence you still consider your home in Canada — and that's the riding you would be voting in.

There's one restriction though: if you've applied for a mail-in ballot to be sent to you abroad, you wouldn't be able to vote in person, even if you didn't vote using that mail-in.

How do I vote if I'm in the Armed Forces?

Elections Canada also sets up polling stations at some Armed Forces bases and units. The ballots from those polling stations are then sent to Elections Canada in Ottawa, where the votes will be counted. Elections Canada has more information on how that works. You could have also voted using the same methods as other Canadians, such as mail or advance polls, but both are finished now.

When will I know the candidates in my riding? 

You'll be able to find a list of all of your local candidates here. Potential candidates had until Sept. 30 at 2 p.m. local time to file nomination forms.

There's also a chance a party won't have a candidate in your riding. Some parties choose not to run one in all ridings — or simply can't find a candidate. Others have dropped candidates, but it's too late to remove them from the ballot, so you'll see their names there on election day.

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Can I get time off work to vote?

Yes, by law, every employer must give employees three consecutive hours while polls are open to vote on election day (with exceptions for the transport industry). Check the hours of your polls. If you don't have the three hour window before or after work, your employer must give you time off during the work day.

They decide exactly when those three hours will be. They can't dock your pay either. If they do, they could face a fine or time in jail.

What does the ballot look like?

If you are voting in the advance polls or on election day, the candidates in your riding will be listed on your ballot. It will look a little something like this.

To properly vote, mark the circle beside the candidate you want to vote for. It can be an X or another mark to make it clear that is the candidate you want to vote for.

If you are voting by special ballot (that includes voting by mail), you'll be given a ballot where you have to write in the name of the candidate you want to vote for. If you write the party name down, it won't be counted.

If you misspell the name of the candidate, your vote is at the discretion of the deputy returning officer. If the intent is clear — Elections Canada gives the example of spelling MacDonald instead of McDonald — then the vote will most likely still be counted.

Will I be able to vote for a prime minister?

No, you will cast one vote to elect your local member of Parliament. The leader of the party with the most elected members of Parliament typically forms the government and becomes prime minister (though party leaders represent ridings too, so you may be in a riding where a candidate who is also the party leader becomes prime minister).

Can I go in and vote for no one?

Yes, but it will be counted as a "rejected ballot." In some provinces, unmarked ballots are actually tallied. 

Rejected ballots include unmarked ones, those that have been defaced or those with multiple votes on them. There were 120,515 rejected ballots in the 2015 election or 0.7 per cent of all votes.

If you are handed a ballot and give it back unmarked immediately (without even going into a booth), that also becomes a "rejected ballot."

Can I take a selfie with my ballot?

Once you step inside a polling station, you can't take photos — so that means no selfies with your ballot. It's a violation of the Elections Act, which could mean a fine or even jail time.

What are some other polling station rules?

• If you aren't registered, you can do so when you get to your polling station. 
• Ballots are considered secret, so no one should be looking at or know how you voted except for you.
• As long as you are in line by the poll's closing time, you will be able to vote. 

Each candidate is allowed to have a representative at polling places. They can monitor how the voting is running, but cannot interfere with the voting process, hand out literature or campaign for their candidate. They can't even wear the same colours as the party they are representing. Neither can polling staff.

In most cases, party campaigning, including signs and pamphlets, are banned from the entire property where voting is taking place, including the parking lot. There are exceptions if voting is happening in a large building, like a condo or a university.

• Here are the tools you need to follow the federal election

So what if I see something sketchy while voting?

If your issue is with something you saw inside the polling station, your primary contact is that location's central poll supervisor, who may choose to escalate it to a returning officer. They'll have you complete an incident form and give you a case number so you can follow up later.

If your problem is with an election sign in your community, you can contact the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections, which is here.

How much of an issue is voter fraud?

Election's Canada's CEO has said there's no reason to believe irregular or non-citizen votes affected results in the last election. Safeguards are designed to deter fraud, like strict ID requirements, supervised polling stations and fines up to $50,000 or five years in prison for offenders.

That said, if you suspect voter fraud, you should contact the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

I keep getting calls or texts from parties … what can I do?

This messaging is allowed, as long as it doesn't identify itself as coming from Elections Canada or mislead and prevent people from voting.

Political parties are exempt from Canada's anti-spam legislation as well as its do-not-call list.

You can ask the party to stop contacting you. Elections Canada encourages you to directly reach out to the parties to do that. The CRTC can issue fines if parties do not stop calling someone who has asked them to stop. But party text messages are exempt from existing legislation.

How many seats does a party need to win?

It depends on what type of government is elected. In order to win a majority government, a party needs 170 seats. The Liberals won a majority with 184 seats in 2015.

A minority government is won by the party that gets less than 170, but still has the most seats. It can be close ⁠— only two seats separated Pierre Trudeau's Liberals from Robert Stanfield's PCs in 1972.

What happens if no party wins a majority? 

Traditionally, the incumbent government has the first kick at winning the confidence of the House of Commons, even if they don't have the most seats — as we saw in the 2018 New Brunswick election.

• More on what happens if no one wins a majority

But in recent years, the second-place leader — even the incumbent — has usually conceded defeat on election night and allowed the leader with the most seats to try to form government, as then-prime minister Paul Martin did when Stephen Harper won the most seats in 2006. During his tenure, Harper insisted "losers don't get to form governments."

So how would a minority work?

The party in power would rely on the support of other parties to stay in office. This could mean forming a coalition or a "confidence and supply agreement," as in the case of the NDP and the Greens in British Columbia, who banded together and took down a Liberal provincial minority government in 2017. They are still working together today.

• How minority governments work — and what happens when they don't

This might mean giving up concessions or certain projects based on the beliefs of the other parties with whom the party in power is working.

If I live on the West Coast, will initial results be announced before I'm finished voting?

As in 2015, Elections Canada will stagger voting hours on election day, so much of the country is voting at the same time. However, with six time zones, this is tricky to co-ordinate. 

Depending on the speed of vote counting and tabulation, there's a good chance those in British Columbia will know results from Atlantic Canada before polls are closed in B.C. The advent of social media has made it impossible to keep results secret ⁠— and it's uncertain if it makes a difference anyway.

Have a question you don't see here? Send Haydn an email at [email protected]. He'll try to get you an answer.