Quebec election officials are debunking the notion that voter registration requests are up since the 2012 election, as Denis Dion, a spokesman for the electoral office, told CTV Montreal that only one of five ridings cited by the Parti Quebecois has seen a rise in demands to vote. One of the five ridings had 56 more requests over this time in the last election, while the others were significantly down. The Parti Quebecois had asked the Director General of Elections to take action concerning reports of unusual voter registration requests in three Montreal-area ridings and two others in the Eastern Townships. Justice Minister Bertrand Saint-Arnaud, MNA Leo Bureau-Blouin and Families Minister Nicole Leger demanded stricter supervision and training for election officials determining voter eligibility, daily reports on voter registration and a post-revision report.
Bertrand asked, “will the Quebec election be stolen by people from Ontario and the rest of Canada?” Leger questioned the reported increase in demands to vote, noting that the voter registration list had been updated two months ago.
The controversy began Saturday when the Le Devoir newspaper reported the resignation of an election official who commented on a wave of requests to vote from people who were not on the permanent list.
Dion, spokeserson for Chief Electoral Officer Jacques Drouin, shot down a quote from former electoral worker Mathieu Vandal that registration requests were being handled like “Trudeau airport” visas.
That is “absolutely false; we don’t work that way,” said Dion.
Full Article: Director General debunks PQ complaint, says voter registration requests are down | CTV Montreal News.