Canada Elections Act

Marginal note:Who may be present at polling station

• 135 (1) The only persons who may be present at a polling station on polling day are

  • (a) any field liaison officer;

  • (b) the returning officer, his or her representatives and any member of his or her staff whom he or she authorizes to be present;

  • (b.1) any election officer whom the returning officer authorizes to be present;

  • (c) the candidates;

  • (d) two representatives of each candidate or, in their absence, two electors to represent each candidate;

  • (e) an elector and a friend or relative who is helping him or her by virtue of subsection 155(1), only for the period necessary to enable the elector to vote;

  • (f) any observer or member of the Chief Electoral Officer’s staff whom he or she authorizes to be present;

  • (g) [Repealed, 2018, c. 31, s. 88]

  • (h) if a polling division of an electoral district in which a registered party’s leader is a candidate is assigned to the polling station, any media representative who — subject to any conditions that the Chief Electoral Officer considers necessary to protect the integ­rity of the vote and the privacy of any person present at the polling station — is authorized in writing by the Chief Electoral Officer to be present and take any photograph or make any audio or video recording of the candidates as they cast their votes; and

  • (i) the auditor referred to in section 164.1.

• Marginal note:Delivery of representative’s authorization

  (2) When a representative of a candidate is admitted to a polling station, the representative shall deliver his or her written authorization from the candidate or the candidate’s official agent in the prescribed form, or a copy of it, to an election officer who is assigned to the polling station.

• Marginal note:Representative authorized in writing

  (3) A representative bearing a written authorization referred to in subsection (2), or a copy of one, is a representative of the candidate for the purposes of this Act and is entitled to represent the candidate to the exclusion of any elector who might otherwise claim the right to represent the candidate.

• Marginal note:Solemn declaration

  (4) Each representative of a candidate or each elector described in paragraph (1)(d), on being admitted to the polling station, shall make a solemn declaration in the prescribed form.

• Marginal note:Solemn declaration

  (5) A candidate’s representative who is appointed to more than one polling station shall, before being admitted to the first polling station, make a solemn declaration in the prescribed form before an election officer who is assigned to that polling station. The representative is not required to make another solemn declaration on being admitted to any other polling station in the same electoral district if he or she presents a document, in the prescribed form, proving that he or she has already made the solemn declaration.