As Ontario’s political parties make campaign promises in preparation for the June 2 provincial elections, Elections Ontario is preparing for Ontario’s first provincial election since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Greg Essensa, Ontario’s Chief Electoral Officer, Ontario is in a fortunate position when it comes to planning an election, having already seen several provincial and one national election play out: “We’ve been able to ascertain a lot of the health related measures that many of those jurisdictions put in place. So things like physical distancing, y’know, you’ve been to your grocery store. You’ve seen the signage on the floors. You’re going to see that in this June’s election.”
Physical distancing and PPE aren’t the only things that Ontario is bringing in June. Previously, the province has had five days of advance voting; this year, it’s been raised to 10. The increase in advanced voting not only gives Ontarians more time, but also allows local returning officers to rotate polling locations in larger ridings with spread out populations for longer periods, giving people access to vote.
As political discussion and tension has been rising during the years since Ontario’s last election, Essensa also maintains that ensuring the integrity of the vote is paramount. “We want to ensure that Ontarians have the confidence, when they walk out of the poll, that the result will reflect the will of the people, and they can have confidence in that integrity because everything is very transparent.” For that transparency, Essensa points toward paper ballots, making sure that Ontario has a tangible record of everyone’s votes.
For those voting for the first time, Essensa points toward the Elections Ontario website as an all-in-one source for information. Additionally, Elections Ontario is open for applications to work with the organization in June to provide polling assistance for voters.
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