Today, Democracy Watch called on Elections
Ontario to correct its website because, as it has since
1990, it continues to fail to inform Ontario voters of
their full voting rights. Democracy Watch is also
very concerned that Elections Ontario will misinform
voters in printed materials sent to them, and will have
yet another ineffective voter turnout
advertising campaign for the upcoming provincial
election.
On the main pages of its "We Make
Voting Easy" website,
Elections Ontario does not mention that Ontario voters
have the right
to decline their ballot and have it counted separately
from a vote for a candidate or a
spoiled ballot.
The sub-pages on the website, including the page entitled "Voting in
Person",
also fail to inform voters of this right.
Elections Ontario's civics
education program
"Voting
Rules Fact Sheet" is likely also incorrect, and
as a result is misleading young voters on
their voting rights.
Chief Electoral Officer Greg
Essensa's message
on the
Elections Ontario website says "We are on a mission to
make voting
easy, and that means putting the needs of the
elector first."
"Elections
Ontario claims to put the needs of voters
first, but isn't even providing voters with
information about all their voting rights.
This is negligent and undemocratic, and the
information must be added to their
website immediately," said Duff Conacher,
Founding Board member of Democracy Watch. "Some voters may not
support any party that has a candidate in their
riding, and they need to
know that they have the right to vote for 'none of
the above' by declining their
ballot."
Section
53 of Ontario's Election Act states as
follows:
"Declined ballot
53. An
elector
who has received a ballot and returns it to the deputy
returning officer
declining to vote, forfeits the right to vote and the
deputy
returning officer shal
immediately write the word “declined” upon the back of
the
ballot and preserve it to be returned to the returning
officer and shall cause an entry
to be made in the poll record that the elector
declined to vote.
R.S.O. 1990, c. E.6, s. 53."
Democracy Watch is also very
concerned that, as in past
elections since 1990, Elections Ontario's printed
material sent to voters, and TV and radio
advertisements about voting will also mislead voters
by
failing to mention the right to decline your ballot
and have it counted as a declined
ballot.
Democracy Watch was consulted by
Elections Ontario in the
spring about its planned voter information and
advertising campaign, and suggested very strongly that
the
information and the ads must mention the right to
decline your ballot.
As well, it strongly suggested that if the ads
hope to encourage higher voter turnout, they must also
contain the following
key messages:
- "You never know
when your vote may count" -- with
examples from past provincial elections such as 1985
and 1990, and from specific ridings
in various elections, all of which show
clearly that local and provincial election results
cannot be predicted in
advance, and;
- "If you don't
vote, you don't count" -- making
it clear that politicians don't really care about
you if you don't vote because non-voters do not
help them get elected, or defeated.
"If
Elections Ontario again spends hundreds of
thousands of dollars on an ad campaign that has the
wrong messages as it has in past elections, and
again negligently fails to inform voters of
their right to decline their ballot, no one should
expect voter turnout to increase
significantly in the October provincial election,"
said Conacher.
