A provincial election has been called for Thursday, February 27th 2025. It is essential we ensure that individuals experiencing homelessness and accessing services can exercise their right to vote.
Agencies must be authorized by Elections Ontario to 'vouch' for service users.
Executive Directors, Managers, Supervisors, and Admin Leads of the shelter program are authorized to sign and vouch for service users. This provides flexibility in ensuring that your agency is ready to assist clients in accessing this important civic right.
1. Each site must fill out the attached Authorization for Administrators form and email it to outreach@elections.on.ca no later than Friday, February 14.
- On the form you will need to indicate the staff member(s) who will work with clients to fill out their paperwork to vote. Please list applicable staff under the ‘Administrators/Representatives’ section. See a guide below to help you fill out the form.
2. Once you submit the form, Elections Ontario will send you a Certificate of Identity and Residence form, which allows you to act as a signatory to verify the identity and residence of your clients.
3. You will need to fill out an Identity and Residence form for each client that wants to vote.
- We recommend inputting all of the information that stays the same (i.e. your shelter name, address and electoral district) and then printing the form and sitting with interested clients to manually fill in their personal information (i.e. name, birthdate, etc.).
Your electoral district can be found here.
4. Once the Identity and Residence form is complete, please ensure it is signed by your client and the person/people who signed up to be Administrators/Representatives. Forms need both signatures to be valid.
5. Your client will take this form to their voting location and hand it to an election official, who will use it as ID to issue them a ballot.
Attached below is a one-pager resource from Diana Chan McNally to help unhoused individuals using homelessness services understand how they can vote. You can also download or share the resource directly via this link.
Click below for additional resources/posters from Elections Ontario: