Selection of polling locations

On election day, there are approximately 4,000 polling places across Québec. Finding locations that are available, accessible to mobility impaired persons, and located near the domicile of electors is a challenge.

Types of premises

Schools and community centres

The Election Act allows us to use the premises of francophone school service centres and anglophone school boards free of charge. This is why students attending public school have no school on election day. The Act also provides for the free use of premises owned by municipalities.

While we prioritize the use of these premises, they are not always available and accessible. We must therefore also rent premises to meet our needs.

Rented premises

We evaluate many options to select accessible premises that are located near the domicile of electors. If we cannot find any near residential areas, we opt for places the local population usually frequents in the course of their regular activities. We favour buildings that have parking spaces and are served by public transit. We also take steps with the lessors to ensure that electors do not have to pay parking fees when possible.

Hotels, golf clubs and private sports centres often have adequate space for voting. Sometimes, we must opt for more atypical voting locations, such as a church or the reception room of a restaurant. What the space is usually used for is of little importance; the essential thing is to ensure access to voting.

Accessibility

We select premises that meet predetermined accessibility criteria.

Before the election, we visit each potential polling place. We note specific information about access to the location and take potential obstacles into account. We then find solutions to improve the accessibility of the site, if needed. For example, we can:

• post an election officer at the entrance to make up for the premises not having an automatic door opener;
• install a threshold ramp to facilitate access if the door has a raised threshold;
• rent wheelchairs that electors can use to travel a long hallway leading to the voting room.

We can even have part of the grounds paved or have a permanent access ramp built, for example.

Inaccessible polling places on election day

We often cannot find enough accessible locations for all the polling stations on election day. We must work with existing buildings and the availability of the premises.

If a polling place does not meet all our accessibility criteria, we inform electors by adding a pictogram to the reminder card that we mail a few days prior to the election. On the When and where to vote page, we also specify which accessibility criteria are lacking at a given polling place.

If a person is unable to go to their polling station due to an accessibility issue, they can request to vote at another location that is accessible.

New polling places

We often use the same polling places from one election to the next, but locations sometimes need to be changed. There are several reasons why a person could vote at a new location:

1. The usual polling place was not available.
2. The characteristics of the usual polling place no longer meet our accessibility criteria.
   We believe that every person who takes part in the election must be able to reach the polling booth without obstacles, independently. We improve our practices from one election to the next to achieve this objective.

3. The usual polling place is at capacity.
   The number of electors in an electoral division varies over time. When a space has reached the maximum number of polling stations it can contain, some electors will have to vote at another location. One thing is for certain: all electors who vote at a location are domiciled nearby.

Proximity to the office of an MNA

Polling places must be neutral. No partisan demonstrations are tolerated, either in the room where voting takes place, in the hallways leading to that room, or on the grounds and in the parking lot of the building where voting is taking place. However, sometimes the electoral division office of a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) is located near a polling place.

We distinguish between the work that an elected Member does and the partisan activities they may hold to promote their re-election. According to the rules established by the Assemblée nationale, no partisan activities can be conducted in a Member’s office. We can therefore set up a polling place in the same building as an electoral division office.

However, we do not set up a polling place in the same building as a candidate’s campaign office, unless that office is located outside the main paths taken to reach the voting room. That said, the offices of returning officers can be located near a campaign office. The Election Act permits this.