Fines for illegal voting is $2,000 federally, $1,750 for Alberta's provincial elections

Chief Justice Mary Moreau of Court of Queen’s Bench upheld a conviction under the Election Act for an American woman who cast a ballot in the 2019 provincial campaign. Investigators told the Court the voter "did not disclose to the official that she was not a Canadian citizen."

Brenda Cherry of Sylvan Lake, Alberta, testified she was confused after receiving a Where To Vote card in the mail. She was misinformed that longtime permanent residents could vote even if they didn’t have Canadian citizenship, reported Blacklocks.

Cherry cast her ballot in the provincial riding of Innisfail-Sylvan Lake. The United Conservative Party won the seat with 75 percent of the popular vote.

"A lot of this is just a misunderstanding," the Court quoted an investigator for Alberta’s Commissioner of Elections.

Convictions for illegal voting in federal campaigns under the Canada Elections Act have seen a range of penalties from community service to the maximum $2,000 fine. There have been 26 charges since the 2015 general election.

Chief Justice Mary Moreau imposed a $1,750 fine for illegal voting in Alberta. The Alberta conviction came after investigators checked immigration records. Elections Canada, in a 2019 Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons, identified 112,000 foreigners on the National Register Of Electors after matching voters’ names with files from the Department of Immigration.

"We have used Immigration Canada data to verify whether people who are on the Register are indeed Canadian citizens," said Chief Electoral Officer Stephane Perrault. She would not say how many illegal voters were known to cast ballots in previous federal campaigns.

"A complete review of the voting records would require Elections Canada to open more than 68,000 poll bags from the 2015 general election alone," said the Inquiry. "This would be a massive undertaking."

"It is disquieting, to say the least," Senator Linda Frum said in an interview. "It’s shocking."

"They’re not going to bother checking?" she said. "Is there no responsibility on the part of Elections Canada?"

"When you look at the small majorities that could shift a riding from a win to a loss, what if only five percent of these people voted in 2015? That could affect the outcome of an election, and certainly the result in a riding."

The worst case of illegal voting in a federal campaign occurred in Jacques-Cartier, Quebec, in the election of 1878. Prosecutors counted some 3,600 illegal votes. Returning officers in one polling station stuffed a ballot box with a false bottom in a case dubbed "the most villainous outrage ever perpetrated on the electors of Canada."