Québec City, October 26, 2001 –– Within the context of the municipal elections that will be held on November 4, 2001, Mr.  Marcel Blanchet, Chief Electoral Officer, wishes to remind electors of the some 330 municipalities^* holding elections that they will have to establish their identity to exercise their right to vote. This measure applies to both advance polling and voting on polling day.

To be able to exercise his right to vote, an elector will have to give his name and address and establish his identity by presenting one of the following documents: his Québec health insurance card, his Québec driver’s licence or his Canadian passport.

If the elector has none of these documents in his possession, he will be asked to proceed to the identity verification panel where he will have to state under oath that he is indeed the elector whose name is entered on the list of electors and that he is entitled to be entered at the address appearing on the list. In addition, he will have to:

• either be accompanied by a person who can identify himself by presenting one of the aforementioned documents bearing his photograph; this person will have to attest, under oath, to the identity and address of the elector concerned;

• or present two documents mentioning his name and together proving his address and date of birth;

• or present two documents mentioning his name and one of which bears his photograph.

Mr. Blanchet would like to emphasize that in no case will the members of the identity verification panel be able to enter an elector on the list of electors to enable him to vote in the current elections.

The elector identification requirement was implemented to strengthen the integrity of the electoral process and to increase its reliability. This procedure was tested successfully at the municipal level during the elections held in 1999 and in 2000, as well as at the provincial level during the by-elections held in Mercier on April 9, 2001, and those of Blainville, Jonquière, Labelle and Laviolette held on October 1st.