Biographical note of the Chief Electoral Officer

Jacques Drouin, Chief Electoral Officer and Chairman of the Commission de la représentation électorale

Unanimously designated by the Members of the Québec National Assembly, Mr. Drouin has held the positions of Chief Electoral Officer of Québec and Chairman of the Commission de la représentation électorale since January 1, 2011. He was named General Secretary of the Network during the Constituent Assembly held in Québec city between August 22 and 24, 2011.

Mr. Drouin has been with Québec's public service since 1978. A graduate of Université Laval with a Bachelor's Degree in Geography, he first worked for the Commission permanente de la réforme des districts électoraux, an institution that would become the Commission de la représentation électorale in 1979. He participated in the drawing up of Québec's electoral map which would be used in the 1981 general election. It should be recalled that this institution merged with that of the Chief Electoral Officer in 1983.

After a short period spent at the Bureau de la statistique du Québec, where he was in charge of the Québec territories file, he returned to the Directeur général des élections du Québec to provide his expertise in the preparation of a draft electoral map of Québec as part of the proposal to reform the voting procedure published in 1984 by the Commission de la représentation électorale.

Between 1985 and 1991, he held various positions with the Directeur général des élections du Québec including those of coordinator for the 1985 general election, person in charge of the secretariat of the assistant to the Chief Electoral Officer for political financing, and head of the Municipal Polling Service.

In 1991, he became secretary general of the Directeur général des élections du Québec, a position that he would hold until 1996. Aside from his responsibilities as secretary general, he directed the advisability and feasibility study on the permanent list of electors and supervised the working group in charge of the development and implementation of this permanent list. The Directeur général des élections du Québec won the Prix d’excellence de la fonction publique (Public service award of excellence) in 1999 for the completion of this mandate.

From 1996 until his recent appointment, Mr. Drouin served as assistant to the Directeur général des élections du Québec and director of electoral operations. In this capacity, he ensured the preparation, organization and holding of four general elections and close to 40 by-elections in Québec. In addition, he assumed direct responsibility for 125 returning officers as well as for their 125 assistants. He was also in charge of the Provincial Polling Service, the Municipal and School Polling Service, and the Electoral Territories and Permanent List of Electors Management Service. Finally, he was responsible for the work of the Commission permanente de révision (Permanent board of revisors).

A well-known specialist in the electoral field, Mr. Drouin has participated in many electoral missions to foreign countries, notably with the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the United Nations (UN), the Organization of American States (OEA), and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). These missions have taken place in Haiti, Benin, Gabon, Chad, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritania, Madagascar, Togo, Catalonia, France and Morocco.  The purposes of these missions were election observation, training observers or electoral staff as well as the evaluation of capacities and needs, and cooperation with the electoral authorities of the nations visited.