Voter Information
Voter Information
Elections Ontario is responsible for maintaining the Permanent Register of Electors for Ontario, also known as the Voters’ List. The Voters’ List, is a list of individuals eligible to vote in provincial and local municipal elections in Ontario.
You can use Elections Ontario’s Voter Registration application to confirm, update or add your information if you:
- have changed your name or address
- own or rent a new property
- no longer own or rent a property
- want to remove your information
If you or your spouse own or rent property other than your home address in Ontario, you may be eligible to vote in more than one municipal election.
Visit Elections Ontario’s website to learn more about voter information, and other options including:
- removing yourself from the Register
- removing a deceased person from the Register
- adding yourself to the list of Future Voters (if you’re under 18 years of age)
Updating Your School Support
As of January 1, 2024, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is no longer responsible for collecting voter information for local elections. MPAC is legislatively required to collect school support information.
You can update your school support designation through MPAC’s Online School Support Tool.
As a property owner in Ontario, you are required to support a school system, even if you do not have children or your children are not currently attending school. This information can be found on your Property Assessment Notice.
Learn more about school support by visiting MPAC.
A person is entitled to vote in a municipal election if, on Voting Day, they:
- Reside in the local municipality, or are the owner or tenant of land in the municipality, or the spouse of such owner or tenant; and
- Are a Canadian citizen;
- Are at least 18 years old; and
- Are not prohibited from voting under the Municipal Elections Act or otherwise prohibited by law.
Resident Elector
A resident elector is a person who lives and is eligible to vote in that municipality’s election. A person is only allowed to have one residence.
A person’s residence is the permanent lodging place to which, whenever absent, he or she intends to return.
The following rules apply in determining a person’s residence:
- A person may only have one residence at a time;
- The place where a person’s family resides is also their residence, unless they moves elsewhere with the intention of changing their permanent lodging place;
- If a person has no other permanent lodging place, the place where they occupy a room or part of a room as a regular lodger, to which they habitually return, is their residence.
Non-Resident Elector
If a person lives in one municipality but owns or rents property in another municipality, then they are a non-resident elector and able to vote in that municipality’s election.
Spouse of Non-Resident Elector
If a person lives in one municipality and qualifies as a spouse of a non-resident elector, then they are able to vote in that municipality’s election.
Students
A person may have residences in two local municipalities at the same time if the person lives in one of the local municipalities in order to attend an education institution but not with the intention of changing their permanent lodging place, and the person’s permanent lodging place is in the other local municipality.
Therefore, students can vote in the municipality where they attend school and they can also vote in the municipality where they live.
Trailer Owners – Campgrounds
Trailer owners in campgrounds are tenants of the campground – therefore, they are potentially eligible electors. Under a timeshare contract, to be eligible, the person must be entitled to use the land on Voting Day, or for a period of six weeks or more during the calendar year in which the election is held.
The following cannot vote:
- A person who is serving a sentence of imprisonment in penal or correctional institution.
- A corporation.
- A person acting as executor or trustee or in any other representative capacity, except as a voting proxy in accordance with section 44 of the Municipal Elections Act.
- A person who was convicted of the corrupt practice described in subsection 90(3), if Voting Day in the current election is less than five years after Voting Day in the election in respect of which he or she was convicted.