Municipal electoral list

Since June 1, 1997, municipalities have been under the legal obligation to use municipal lists of electors or referendum lists produced from the permanent list of electors (PLE).  In addition, under an amendment made in 2001 to the Act respecting municipal territorial organization, a reeve of a Regional County Municipality (RCM) can be elected by universal suffrage, provided that the council of the RCM has passed a by-law for this purpose. The provisions of the Act respecting elections and referendums in municipalities apply to this election, with a few adaptations, where necessary.

Updating of the territory

The returning officers of the municipalities in which elections are held in November 2009 received, in April, the list of thoroughfares to enable them to check and correct, where applicable, the names of the streets. These corrections, as well as the description of the electoral territories (districts or wards), will be provided to the Chief Electoral Officer to allow him to incorporate this information in the territory file of the permanent list of electors.

Production of the list of domiciled electors

Another step consists of requesting, in writing, the list of domiciled electors. For this purpose, the returning officers of the local municipalities and of the RCMs concerned must complete the form that the Directeur général des élections du Québec sent them.  This form allows the returning officers to indicate the preferred medium for the production of the list of domiciled electors: either on paper or in the form of a computer file.  Beginning in mid-September 2009, the official version of the list of domiciled electors was sent to each returning officer on the chosen medium and will be based on the territorial description that had been submitted by him previously.

Updating of the PLE

The permanent list of electors is also updated on the basis of the changes made during the municipal list of electors revision period. The returning officer sent these changes to the Chief Electoral Officer in accordance with the terms and conditions that he determines, not later than November 20, 2009.