Access to Information records reveal that hundreds of Canadians living abroad were improperly registered to vote in the 2025 federal election, raising questions about ballot integrity in several close races.Blacklock's Reporter says a January 26 briefing note from Elections Canada shows that 658 electors listed Canadian addresses, including 293 using Department of Foreign Affairs post office boxes and 365 with other domestic addresses, despite federal law requiring foreign voters to provide an overseas address. Nearly 700 names were affected, most registered during last year’s campaign.“Fifty-one percent were correctly identified while 49% were approved in error,” the agency said. It added that automated preventive measures would be put in place ahead of the next election. Elections Canada did not provide information on how many of the improperly registered voters actually cast ballots or whether it affected results.The irregularities are notable given razor-thin margins in four ridings that went to judicial recounts: Terrebonne, Que. (1 vote), Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, Ont. (4 votes), Terra Nova-The Peninsulas, Nfld. and Labrador (12 votes), and Milton East-Halton Hills South, Ont. (21 votes)..The briefing highlights broader gaps in tracking Canadians living abroad. Director of Statistics Canada’s Centre for Demography Laurent Martel told the Senate foreign affairs committee that very little data exist on the overseas population and that administrative records are incomplete. Statistics Canada published its first estimate of Canadians abroad in 2022 using data from 2016 and noted an update would be relevant given population growth.Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Michel Roussel testified that about 100,000 Canadians abroad were on the International Register Of Electors, with at least 32,000 applying for ballots in the last federal campaign. He noted that while Hong Kong ranks second in overall diaspora population, other countries including Britain, Australia, Germany, and South Korea hold the largest numbers of voters.
