Procedural errors by elections officials rife during 2011 federal vote: report

OTTAWA – A new report says officials at polling stations across Canada committed a raft of serious procedural errors during the 2011 federal election.

The report, commissioned by Elections Canada, includes a national audit of the paperwork filled out by elections officials who are supposed to ensure voters whose names don’t appear on the list are eligible to cast a ballot.

The audit found more than half the documents contained errors of the type that courts have found serious enough to contribute to overturning election results.

The paperwork was seriously deficient in more than 165,000 cases.

That means, on average, election officers made more than 500 serious procedural errors in each of Canada’s 308 ridings.

The report concludes that the procedures for verifying voters must be simplified and election officials must be better trained.

Chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand has accepted the report’s conclusions and recommendations.