Last chance to get your name on list of eligible electors
By Robert Frank
With files from Rhonda Massad
www.thesuburban.com
If your name isn’t on the official list of eligible English Montreal School Board (EMSB) voters by Oct. 14, you won’t be able to cast a ballot when you show up to vote in the upcoming EMSB election, Nov. 2.
According to Quebec Education Ministry spokesman Brian St. Louis, you only have until Tuesday to ensure that you’re eligible to vote, if your name isn’t on the voters roll.
Many Montreal residents don’t know that Quebec automatically shunts them to their local French school board voters list, once their children graduate from English school.
Unsure whether you’re on the EMSB list? It’s easy to find out: Elections Quebec has provided a toll-free telephone number. Call 1-888-353-2846 to find out which school board election you are registered to vote in.
The upcoming vote is important, because so few eligible voters bothered to cast their ballot during the past two school board elections in 2003 (15.9%) and 2007 (17.8%). Quebec City has made it clear that another similarly abysmal turnout at the polls this year will undermine the democratic mandate of Quebec school boards.
How it works:
Parents with children
If you have one or more children enrolled in the French-language or English-language school board serving your place of domicile, you will be registered in that school board.
Adults without children
If you don’t have children enrolled in the French-language or English-language school board serving your domicile, you will automatically be entered on the list of electors of the French-language school board where your domicile is located.
I’m not on the EMSB voters list. What do I do?
If you have been defaulted to the French school board list and want to be on the EMSB list, you must submit an application before Oct. 14.
With next Tuesday’s deadline looming, EMSB returning officer Pierre-Yves Bezzaz is urging voters who discover that they aren’t on the list to visit EMSB headquarters or one of EMSB’s four satellite voters list revision centres listed below.
“We will be receiving [prospective] EMSB voters between 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Oct. 8 and Oct. 10,” Bezzaz told The Suburban. “They may also visit EMSB headquarters in order to apply to transfer to the EMSB voters roll.”
“You must bring two pieces of identification with you,” he said in an interview. “One must indicate your home address and the other one must have a picture of you. It could be a driver’s license or a passport, for example.”
Where do I go?
According to Bezzaz you should visit:
Lester B. Pearson High School
11575 P.M. Favier, Montreal North
10 a.m.-4 p.m., Oct. 8 or 10
John F. Kennedy High School
3030 Villeray, Montreal
10 a.m.-4 p.m. , Oct. 8 or 10
Lauren Hill Academy
2505 Côte Vertu, St. Laurent
10 a.m.-4 p.m., Oct. 8 or 10
Westmount High School
4350 Ste. Catherine West, Westmount
10 a.m.-4 p.m., Oct. 8 or 10
or
EMSB Headquarters
6000 Fielding, Montreal
until 10 p.m., Oct. 14
[514] 483-7200 x 7888, 8800, 8801 or 8802
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