Planning a pandemic election

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unique circumstances for administering elections in Canada. Given that Elections Canada must be ready to administer an election at any time, the agency had to quickly organize itself in the spring of 2020 to review and adapt its operations to deliver an accessible, safe and secure election.

Elections Canada established a governance structure for planning a pandemic election to enable the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Canada, the decision-making authority, to make informed decisions that can be rapidly and effectively implemented.

CEO
- Pandemic Election Steering Committee
- Electoral Events and Innovation
  - General Election Delivery in Pandemic Circumstances Working Group
  - General Election Pandemic Intelligence Task Force

In April 2020, Elections Canada established both the Pandemic Election Steering Committee and the General Election Delivery in Pandemic Circumstances Working Group.

Pandemic Election Steering Committee

This committee has been giving agency-wide directions for electoral preparation in the COVID-19 pandemic context. Chaired by the CEO, the committee comprises the following six senior executives:

Deputy CEO, Electoral Events and Innovation
Deputy CEO, Regulatory Affairs
Deputy CEO, Digital Transformation
Executive Director, Public Affairs and Civic Education
Chief Financial Officer
Chief of Staff

All sector and branch heads remain accountable for their programs and services and are responsible for implementing the decisions that the CEO makes through the committee.

General Election Delivery in Pandemic Circumstances Working Group

This working group on General Election Delivery in Pandemic Circumstances examined how Elections Canada could administer by-elections and/or a general election in the context of a pandemic. It evaluated electoral processes and tools from both a public health and an electoral integrity perspective while ensuring that approved changes could be implemented by the date that Elections Canada had previously established for election readiness, that is March 2021. The working group was led by executives from Electoral Events and Innovation and reported to the Pandemic Election Steering Committee through the Deputy CEO, Electoral Events and Innovation. The group's membership was broad and included subject-matter experts and/or decision-makers in a functional area of election delivery. It also included field personnel to ensure that the views of returning officers were considered.

In early October 2020, the working group tabled its report, which recommended a series of prioritized adaptive measures in five core areas of business:

Field election administrators and the recruitment and training of poll workers
Online service performance under load and stress
Vote by mail (human, mechanical and IT infrastructure under stress for applications, voting kits issuance, vote counting)
Poll operations and materials
Offices of returning officers and of additional assistant returning officers

Recommendations were submitted to the steering committee for consideration.

General Election Pandemic Intelligence Task Force

In October 2020, the steering committee mandated the creation of the General Election Pandemic Intelligence Task Force (GEPITF) to plan and coordinate a whole-of-agency operational response to matters related to public health. The GEPITF was tasked with developing a relationship framework with federal, provincial and regional or local public health authorities and security organizations. As a result, it would receive guidance on Elections Canada's pandemic electoral procedures and tools along with shared information from health partners to monitor the national and regional pandemic electoral environment.

In addition, the task force has developed and/or reviewed pandemic procedures and tools such as protocols, instructions and training packages for field personnel and staff at Elections Canada's headquarters.

The GEPITF reports to the Pandemic Election Steering Committee through the Deputy CEO, Electoral Events and Innovation.

Learn more about the Commissioner of Canada Elections' activities during a pandemic