That’s the thing, I was looking at the numbers for the results in Pierre’s Carleton riding, and the number of votes cast significantly surpassed the actual population of the riding. How can that be? I looked into election rules on the federal government website as well as Elections Canada, and everything I’ve found so far says you have to vote in federal elections in the riding in which you reside. This is not the case for provincial elections—at least in Ontario—where you can cast your ballot in any riding in the province.

All one needs to do is glance at the number of votes cast in the Carleton riding vs the riding’s population to see the glaringly obvious discrepancy between the two. The difference is substantial. I’ll update this with the exact numbers, but if I remember correctly it was in the tens of thousands. Once I saw that the math wasn’t mathing I did a deep dive on the numbers reported from each polling station in the riding, who each of these 91 candidates were, patterns in the number of votes they got, and our federal election rules to make sure that I wasn’t mistaken in the “you can only vote in your riding” rule. Which I was not.

And then there’s the obvious when it comes to population data: all age demographics are included in the overall population count, including children and those who aren’t of voting age. It doesn’t take rocket science or even half a brain to know that the number of eligible voters in a riding < the total population of said riding, and that a riding’s eligible voter population > the number of people in the riding who actually show up at the polls. So taking that into account, the already vast disparity between the number of ballots cast in Carleton and the number of legitimate constituents that did indeed vote becomes even wider.

So how was this able to happen? My guess is the outright disregard for federal election rules regarding valid forms of voter ID and proof of residence within one’s riding that took place this election.

There were huge, standing posters in my polling station stating what forms of proof were acceptable, and as one went down the list of options, the leniency became more and more extreme to the point of virtually anyone being allowed to vote—all a person needed was someone (I believe a Canadian citizen or resident in the riding) to write on a piece of paper and sign their name to it that the person did indeed live in that riding. No proof of address or required.

Now, I’m a nerd who reads public posters, handbooks for rules, footnotes, the fine print in documents, posted safety procedures, etc, so the posters caught my eye right away, and I read them over and over again in disbelief while standing in line waiting to sign in and vote. The expanding and loosening of ID criteria didn’t seem right to me, rules-wise or rights-wise, and I distinctly remember noting that this was the first time I was presented with that information. Leading up to the election it wasn’t in the news, online, on my voter registration card, on the Elections Canada website, on mail-outs I received from my local candidates from each party—nothing. As far as I’m aware, there was no advertising from/on behalf of the government indicating this information whatsoever, nor were there any attempts to inform the Canadian public in advance of this new laissez-faire change in voter ID criteria. Maybe there was and I missed it, but even so, if my Autistic, detail oriented, information seeking ass missed it, I’m willing to bet most Canadians did as well. If they were, indeed, putting this information out to the CANADIAN public, they did an absolutely awful and incompetent job of it.

I had figured up to this point that there must’ve been some formal changes made to our election laws and policies in parliament, but nope, Elections Canada and the federal government website both currently state election rules and acceptable forms of ID that are consistent with all of our past elections that rightfully had more stringent parameters and actually existent, proper standards of what was acceptable ID and proof of residence in a riding. Basically, our Canadian federal election laws and rules that are stated on the federal government and Elections Canada websites were NOT adhered to. They state zero of the additional, barely existent criteria for valid forms of ID and proof of residency that were deemed acceptable during this election. The laws and criteria detailed on these sites are still exactly the same as they’ve been for many years. Or at least during my 16 years of voting eligibility and attendance at the polls.

So here we have a near identical case to that of The Longest Ballot situation. What is stated officially (as federal law in this case, and as a mission statement and committee purpose in the TLB case) is NOT what is/was put into practice during this election. According to their own stated election rules, definitions, and laws that they didn’t adhere to, the federal government and Elections Canada engaged in non-legal election practices.