Special Ballots: General Information

Electors who wish to vote in person at their local returning office, must complete a Special Ballot Application and provide one piece of identification that includes both their name and residential address.

Special Ballot Applications can be picked up at the local returning office.

You can find the contact information of your returning office by using our interactive application or by calling:

• Toll-free in Canada and the United States: 1-855-523-5932
• Collect calls: +1-416-649-1046
• TTY toll-free in Canada and the United States: 1-888-292-2312

Once the completed application form and identification is reviewed and approved by the Special Ballot Officer, the elector is given a write-in special ballot to mark and cast in the returning office.

You can vote in person by Special Ballot at your local returning office.

To vote in person at your local returning office,

1. Bring one piece of identification (41KB PDF) that includes both your name and residential address to your local returning office.
2. When you arrive at the returning office, a Special Ballot Officer will assist you in completing yourSpecial Ballot Application. You will show your identification and sign the declaration. The Special Ballot Officer reviews and approves your application, you will vote by Special ballot.
3. Your name is struck off the List of Electors, indicating that you have voted by Special ballot. This means that you are no longer eligible to vote in person at an advance poll or on election day.

For more information on Special ballots, please call Elections Ontario at 1-888-668-8683 (Public Enquiries).

You can download Adobe Reader to view PDF files.

Every eligible elector must vote in the electoral district in which his or her principal residence is located. As a post-secondary student elector, you may need to choose a principal residence before you vote. For example, as a post-secondary student, you may live in one residence when you're at school, like your dorm room or your off-campus apartment, and in another residence when you're out of school, like your family home. When you choose your principal residence, you are choosing your electoral district and your pool of candidates.

Once you have chosen your principal residence, you can vote in one of the three ways:

• You can vote at an advance poll,
• You can vote at your voting location on election day, or
• You can vote by Special ballot..

If you're a post-secondary student with a physical disability and you're unable to vote at your local returning office or satellite office, at an advance poll, or on election day, you may request a home visit.

For more information available on the options available to post-secondary students, please visit our Post-Secondary student page.

You can still vote even if the hospital in which you are staying is outside your electoral district. If you don't know the name of your electoral district, a Special Ballot Officer will be able to assist you. If you don't know the names of the candidates in your electoral district, a Special Ballot Officer will have access to a list of all the candidates in your electoral district.

You may use your hospital bracelet as a form of identification or an identification document with both your name and residential address (41KB PDF).

• You're eligible to vote in the election,
• It is impossible or unreasonably difficult for you to get to your local returning office or satellite office, and

• You need help completing the Special Ballot Application because of a disability or because you're unable to read or write.

• VIA TELEPHONE

  Toll-free in Canada and the United States: 1-855-523-5932

  Collect calls: +1-416-649-1046

  TTY toll-free in Canada and the United States: 1-888-292-2312

• VIA EMAIL

  sb@elections.on.ca

• VIA FAX — Attention: Special Ballots

  Toll-free in Canada and the United States: 1-888-483-4448

  Outside of Canada and the United States: +1-416-212-8723