When do general elections always take place

Partisan material may be removed, however, from main pathways used by electors to enter the polling place. The returning officer and other election officers will use their discretion to determine whether partisan material must be removed from a polling place. Section of the Canada Elections Act states that, during an election period, no one may interfere with the transmission of election advertising, such as a campaign sign.

If you are not sure whether the sign is on private or public property, check with your municipality or other government agency. Property owners do not have the right to prevent tenants from putting up election signs on the premises they lease in an apartment building during an election period. Condominium corporations do not have the right to prevent condo owners from putting up election signs on the units they own during an election period. However, property owners and condominium corporations do have the right to set reasonable conditions on the size and type of sign, and to prohibit signs in common areas, whether indoors or outdoors see section of the Canada Elections Act.

The term "common areas" refers to an area or areas that may be used by all occupants of, and visitors to, a building e. It does not apply to areas that are part of the premises of the unit and not accessible to other building residents, such as balconies.

The Canada Elections Act does not affect the right of private residential property owners to control which people enter their property, or anything placed on it. If a sign has been placed on your private residential property without your permission, the Canada Elections Act does not prevent you from removing it. You may wish to contact the candidate or registered party whose sign it is to tell them you did not request the sign and to ask them to remove it.

If you are not sure whether the sign is on private or public property, check with the municipality or other government agency. To make a complaint or allegation of wrongdoing about election signs displayed during a federal election, please write to the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections. How to make a complaint to the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

Ballots are printed on special paper. The number of sheets sent to printers and returned by them is closely controlled. A matching serial number is printed on the stub and counterfoil.

The number is a strict temporary control mechanism used to ensure that the ballot given to the voter and back to the deputy returning officer is the same. The serial number does not appear on the ballot and is not registered with the voter's name.

Once the electors presented themselves to the deputy returning officer, the poll clerk checks to ensure that their names appear on the voters list for the assigned poll. Once a person is confirmed to be on the list and has proven his or her identity and address , the deputy returning officer removes an initialled and pre-folded ballot from the book — with its counterfoil still attached. The elector is then instructed to go behind the voting screen, mark the ballot in secret and return it, folded, to the same deputy returning officer.

The deputy returning officer takes each ballot that is returned, without unfolding it, and checks that it is the same ballot that was given to the voter. The serial number on the counterfoil must match the serial number on the stub remaining in the book. The deputy returning officer removes and discards the counterfoil and returns the still-folded ballot to the voter. The voter places the ballot in the ballot box, or asks the deputy returning officer to do so.

Once a person has voted, the poll clerk places a check mark in a column next to that voter's name on the list, indicating that the person has voted, and crosses the voter's name off the list. Section of the Canada Elections Act states that "the vote is secret. Ballots cast on election day are counted when the polls close. Since voting takes place at different times across the country, results from the Eastern provinces will be available earlier that those in the West.

Elections Canada begins publishing live preliminary results shortly after p. Eastern Time on our website. Learn more about what happens after voting in a federal election and how ballots are counted.

After the polls close, every deputy returning officer counts the votes for his or her polling station , assisted by the poll clerk and witnessed by the candidates or their representatives.

The deputy returning officer records the number of votes received by each candidate and the number of rejected ballots on a Statement of the Vote. The ballots and other election documents are then sealed in the ballot box and delivered to the returning officer. Every returning officer validates the results by adding the totals given on each Statement of the Vote. The returning officer then delivers a certificate announcing the validated results to the candidates. In the absence of an application for a judicial recount, on the seventh day after the validation, he or she writes the name of the candidate who has received the most votes on the election writ, signs the writ and returns it to the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada.

A judicial recount occurs automatically if the two leading candidates are separated by less than one one-thousandth of the total votes cast in the riding or if they receive the same number of votes after the validation. In the very rare cases where the two leading candidates still have the same number of votes after the recount, a by-election is held for that riding.

As soon as the returning officer receives the judge's certificate stating the results of the judicial recount, and if there is no tie vote, he or she writes the name of the winning candidate on the election writ and returns the writ to the Chief Electoral Officer. Elections Canada has trained and paid election workers who count the ballots by hand. Election workers follow the strict counting procedures set out in the Canada Elections Act , the law that governs federal elections.

While Elections Canada does not use automatic ballot-counting machines, they are used successfully and securely in some other jurisdictions in Canada and around the world. Provincial, territorial and municipal governments determine their own election laws and procedures, as do political parties when it comes to their leadership contests.

Election administrators determine whether or not to use technology to support their electoral process based on their context and needs.

The Canada Elections Act requires the official results from a federal general election to be published without delay. Between the announcement of preliminary results on election night and the publication of official voting results, the balloting results go through a number of verification stages. Results are published as they become available.

The official voting results also report the final number of voters on the list for each polling station. In order to do this, Elections Canada must data-capture the revisions made to the voters lists during the election, including the information of voters who registered at the polls on election day.

To protect the secrecy of the vote, Elections Canada does not release any preliminary poll-by-poll results on election night. Instead, we summarize the results for five polls at a time in each riding. These summaries include votes cast by special ballot and at advance polls. Candidates' representatives receive a copy of the Statement of the Vote on election night at each poll they attend.

Poll-by-poll results are available in hard copy to candidates and media after validation, which takes place within seven days after election day in most ridings. Media can submit their request for these results by contacting the local returning officer before election day. In a few cases, the results from more than one poll may be reported together where this is necessary to protect the secrecy of the vote in each poll.

Without delay after a general election, a report setting out, by polling division, the number of votes cast for each candidate, the number of rejected ballots and the number of names on the final voters list must be published. In the case of a by-election, the same report must be published within 90 days after the return of the writ.

Thursdays at the polls. The history of the Thursday vote. A look at why elections held in the UK are always on a Thursday. Latest features from BBC Scotland.

Why don't more people make use of credit unions? Scottish stories and scenery surveyed from the sky The history of Scotland's cities, coasts and countryside from the sky. Silence in the archives — why history vaults don't hold the full story Prof Suzannah Lipscomb on history's missing voices. Will cows that burp less be key to a greener future? Bill Bailey: I only held on to the Strictly trophy for 10 minutes 's champion reflects on his success in the ballroom. The Highland hermit who must choose between happiness and health Ken Smith has lived in the wilderness for 40 years but now faces a dilemma.

How to make your money grow a little greener The steps we can all take to invest in a greener and wiser way. Is Scotland's only A-listed football stand a 'concrete mess' or a work of architectural genius? Netherdale Stadium splits opinion. Passion, pragmatism and the challenge of giving up North Sea oil Activists, oil executives and scientists sum up the situation.

BBC Scotland homepage. The county or counties running the special election must advertise the date and locations for the special election, as well as the candidates running for office. Everyone who lives in the district the candidates will represent can vote in the special election. In presidential elections, each political party holds a national convention where they choose their nominee for president.

The results of the primary election determine how votes from Pennsylvania are cast at the convention. The nominees from each party run against each other in the general election in November. The president is officially elected by the Electoral College, and not the popular vote.

But the popular vote — including your vote — helps decide which candidate receives Pennsylvania's electoral votes. The Electoral College is a group of citizens known as electors. Pennsylvania has 20 electoral votes. In Pennsylvania, each candidate for president chooses a list of electors.

The Constitution created the Electoral College to ensure that each state had a role in selecting the president, no matter its population.

Each state has the same number of electoral votes as it has members of Congress. There are a total of votes in the Electoral College. A candidate must win a simple majority - - of those votes to win the election.