Canada’s top election official is admitting serious failures in the April 28 general election, from misplaced ballots to polling stations that never opened, in what he called “unacceptable” irregularities.Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault said public complaints skyrocketed 64% compared to 2021, rising from 9,410 to 15,400. Blacklock's Reporter said his report noted widespread inexperience among staff, with 36% of returning officers and 73% of poll workers new to the job.Two northern Quebec communities saw no voting at all after polls failed to open. “The shortcomings experienced in Nunavik were unacceptable,” Perrault wrote, adding the agency is reviewing what went wrong and pledging changes..The report listed further breakdowns in five other ridings with indigenous populations across B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. In Terrebonne, Que., staff botched 115 mail-in ballots by printing the wrong return address, leaving 16 ballots unaccounted for. Liberals won that riding by a single vote, and the result is now before Quebec Superior Court.Ballots were also lost in other parts of the country. In two ridings, 467 mail-in votes were only discovered after local Elections Canada offices had already shut down. In Coquitlam, B.C., another 822 ballots were never counted. Officials insist the errors did not affect results..Advance voting saw a record 7.5 million Canadians cast ballots, up 27% from 2021, but shortages hit polling stations in B.C., Yukon and Alberta. Voters also faced lengthy waits in Carleton, Ont., where the ballot stretched a full metre to list 91 protest candidates.On election day itself, Elections Canada’s website crashed between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m., locking out more than 920,000 Canadians seeking polling information while stations were still open.
