Judicial Recount

• Author: Gregory Tardi
• Pages: 567-569

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 19

JUDICIAL RECOUNT

CEA: Pursuant to section  of the Act, if the dierence between the

number of votes cast for the candidate with the most votes and the num-

ber cast for any other candidate is less than ⁄ of the votes cast, the

returning ocer must make a request to a judge for a recount.

Pursuant to section  of the Act, within four days following the

issue of the certif‌icates of the votes cast by the returning ocer, an elec-

tor may apply to a judge for a recount. For these purposes, “judge” is

def‌ined at section  of the Act. In each province and territory, it refers to

a judge of the superior court of f‌irst instance.

Pursuant to section () of the Act, a recount must be held within

four days after the judge receives the application.

Pursuant to section , a recount shall proceed continuously. As

recount of votes is urgent for the sake of certainty of results, it has f‌irst

priority on the judicial calendar.

RECOUNT: Pursuant to Part  of the Canada Elections Act, the validation

of the votes in each electoral district is the responsibility of the Returning

Ocer. In this sense, validation consists of the arithmetic addition of

the results provided to the Returning Ocer by the Deputy Returning

Ocers, each of whom were in charge of a single poll within the electoral