Canada Elections Act

Marginal note:Election officers

• 22 (1) The following persons are election officers:

  • (a) field liaison officers appointed under section 23.2;

  • (a.1) returning officers appointed under subsection 24(1);

  • (b) assistant returning officers appointed under subsection 26(1) or 28(5) and additional assistant returning officers appointed under subsection 30(1);

  • (c) persons authorized by a returning officer under section 27 to exercise powers or perform duties under this Act;

  • (c.1) persons designated pursuant to subsection 28(3.1);

  • (d) revising agents appointed under paragraph 32(a);

  • (e) deputy returning officers appointed under paragraphs 32(b) and (c) and subsection 273(1);

  • (f) poll clerks appointed under paragraphs 32(b) and (c) and subsection 273(1);

  • (g) registration officers appointed under paragraph 32(d);

  • (g.1) persons appointed under section 32.1;

  • (h) information officers appointed under paragraph 124(1)(a);

  • (i) persons responsible for maintaining order at a central polling place appointed under paragraph 124(1)(b);

  • (j) central poll supervisors appointed under subsection 124(2);

  • (k) persons appointed under subsection 290(2) to collect ballot boxes;

  • (l) the special voting rules administrator appointed under section 181;

  • (m) special ballot officers appointed under subsection 183(1) or section 184;

  • (n) liaison officers for correctional institutions appointed under subsection 248(1); and

  • (o) deputy returning officers and poll clerks for correctional institutions appointed under subsection 253(1).

• Marginal note:Election officers — exclusions

  (2) For greater certainty, a representative of a candidate who is present at a polling station is not an election officer.

• Marginal note:Who shall not be appointed election officers

  (3) The following persons shall not be appointed as an election officer:

  • (a) a minister of the Crown or a member of the executive council of a province;

  • (b) a member of the Senate or the House of Commons;

  • (c) a member of the legislative assembly of a province;

  • (d) a judge or deputy judge of any superior court or any bankruptcy or insolvency court and, in Yukon and the Northwest Territories, a judge of the Supreme Court;

  • (d.1) a person who was a candidate at the last general election or at a by-election held since the last general election;

  • (e) a person who has served in Parliament in the session immediately before the election or in the session in progress at the time of the election; and

  • (f) a person who, within seven years before the proposed appointment, has been found guilty of any offence under this Act or the Referendum Act, or a regulation made under the Referendum Act, or under an Act of the legislature of a province, or a regulation made under an Act of the legislature of a province, relating to provincial, municipal or school board elections.

• Marginal note:Qualifications

  (4) An election officer must be qualified as an elector and an election officer referred to in any of paragraphs (1)(a), (b), (d) to (g) and (j) must reside in the electoral district in which he or she is to perform duties under this Act.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (5) In the case of an appointment that is to be made by a returning officer, if he or she is unable to appoint an election officer who meets the requirements set out in subsection (4), he or she may, with the approval of the Chief Electoral Officer, appoint

  • (a) a Canadian citizen who is 16 years of age or older and who resides in the electoral district; or

  • (b) a person who is qualified as an elector but does not live in the electoral district.

• Marginal note:Prohibition — acting as election officer

  (6) No person shall act as an election officer knowing that they do not meet the requirements for an election officer set out in this section.