Campaign visit to advance-polling station could spell trouble.
Elections Quebec confirms it is investigating visits from candidates
Yet another controversy linked to Quebec’s student vote surfaced on Wednesday as Elections Quebec confirmed it is looking into whether Parti Québécois minister Bernard Drainville and two other PQ candidates broke the law by campaigning on CEGEP and university campuses where ballots were being cast.
Photos shared on Twitter on Tuesday appear to show Drainville, Martine Desjardins and Evèlyne Abitbol smiling and posing with students. PQ-produced pamphlets are also visible in some of the pictures, which could still be viewed online late Wednesday afternoon.
The provincial Elections Act states that “no person may, on the premises of a polling station, use any sign to indicate his political affiliation or support for or opposition to a party or candidate, or engage in any other form of partisan publicity.”
While campus visits are usually fair game for political candidates, many CEGEPs and universities are doubling as polling stations this week. An initiative introduced in this provincial election allows students to vote at their school, something the province is hoping will boost the traditionally low turnout rates among voters age 18 to 24.
Elections Quebec said it is investigating the visits from the PQ candidates, but issued no further comment.
Meanwhile, discontent over how returning officers are dealing with students who wish to vote but are not yet registered has spread to Sherbrooke, where at least one woman said potential voters are being unfairly turned away.
Beth Wood, a part-time student at Bishop’s University, said she was “horrified” when a fellow student informed her that despite being born in Quebec and holding all the relevant documentation (including a Quebec health insurance card and a driver’s licence), she would not be permitted to cast a ballot.
“Because she is a student who lives with her parents in the summers and she doesn’t know where she will be living next year, officials at the office here in Sherbrooke refused to register her for the vote,” Wood said.
“They were asking her about her future plans ... but your residency is based on historical status. (Future plans) shouldn’t have any bearing on your democratic right to vote.”
The student in question could not be reached by the Gazette on Wednesday.
Like many post-secondary schools across Quebec, Bishop’s has a polling station set up on campus for three days this week.
“I’ve heard more buzz about this election than any other,” Wood told the Gazette. “We want young people to vote ... the problem with students is that they tend to say ‘whatever.’ ”
Meanwhile, a group of five students from McGill who found themselves in similar situations have filed an injunction in Quebec Superior Court demanding Elections Quebec to add their names to the voters’ list. Court documents state that four of the five students are hoping to vote for the first time having recently turned 18, and that one of them, Simren Sandhu, “is in the process of incorporating a business based in Montreal.”
Arguments in the case are expected to be heard by a judge on Thursday at the Montreal courthouse.