Municipal elections: Oddities mentioned in the analysis of votes in Quebec

A detailed analysis of the referendum in Quebec reveals a dozen odds that do not reveal the figures at a general glance, for example, significant differences in the number of votes cast for the mayor and a councilor in the same office.

Read more: The last days of the campaign changed everything

Read more: 39 major errors during the vote count in Montreal

In an unprecedented approach, Newspaper In-depth scrutiny of voter data in the last municipal election.

Each of the 1502 polling stations in 21 districts was analyzed to better understand the results.

Indescribable differences appeared.

For example, in one of the Val-Bélair polling stations, we noticed a significant difference between the number of people who voted for the mayor and those who were elected councilors, even though each voter received one ballot. For each of the two stages.

Yesterday, at the end of the day, the city clerk was not available to answer our questions.

Differences observed by Newspaper In Quebec they are minors, they have no chance of changing the outcome of the referendum, not in the town hall or in the districts, Contrary to what was found in Montreal.

Abuses in Montreal

In the metropolis, 39 significant irregularities were mentioned and they could have an impact on the election results because in these cases a dozen votes were needed to reconsider in the areas closest.

This means that dozens or hundreds of votes may or may not be credited to the wrong person.

In Quebec, no judicial reconsideration was requested by either party.

Lots of effort

Since the election data by Quebec City is published only in PDF format, a lot of effort was put in by our team to analyze the data in the journalistic process.

Table software was used to extract information in PDF format in Excel format.

Then, it is necessary to line up all the candidates for mayor and council for each of the 1502 polling stations.

Finally, a cross-section between the files, multiple calculation columns, and anomaly detection rules were created to help analyze the boxes in the city’s 21 districts.

– Bureau of Investigation, in collaboration with Dominique Cambron-Goulet

Examples of inconsistencies in voting results

Saint-Phoebe – Retail – Cape-Rouge

District: Montcalm – Saint-Sacrement
Ballot box: 1066 (Voting day)

In the ballot box, 170 people voted for the councilor position, but only 160 people voted for the mayor position, according to the municipality file.

District: Pointe-de-Sainte-Foy
Ballot box: 3148 (Voting day)

Democratic Quebec candidate Pierre Martin received 10 votes, while his leader and mayoral candidate Jean Rousseau received no votes. Compared to the post of councilor, Townhall has 12 votes more in the polls. Were any of the ballots misplaced?

Hot-Saint-Charles

District: Val-Bélair
Ballot box: 641 (early voting)

No less than 31 people voted for Townhall in the House. Three votes were cast in the municipal council and 4 votes were cast for the councilor.

Beauport

District: T-shirt – Montmornsi – Signural
Ballot box: 529 (early voting)

This number is 10 votes more for the councilor than the mayor. Jean-François Gosselin received 28 votes less than his adviser Stevens Mélancon. No poll was rejected.

District: Saint-Thérèse-de-Lisieux
Ballot box: 505 (early voting)

Town Hall has 9 more votes than the councilor post.

City – LIMOILOU

District: Saint-Roch – Saint-Sauveur
Ballot box: 135 (early ballot)

Mayoral candidate Jean-François Gosselin received no votes, while his candidate Marie-Josee Proteau received 16 votes. At the end of the count, the councilor’s vote was 116, against 98 by the mayor. Forgot any ballots?

District: Saint-Roch – Saint-Sauveur
Ballot box: 138 (early voting)

In this ballot, 141 people voted for the candidates and 151 for the mayor. Only 4 votes were rejected.

Charlesburg

District: Louis-XIV
Ballot box: 4106 (Voting day)

There are 20 fewer votes for councilor than mayor: 120 for mayor and 100 for councilor. Two votes were rejected.

District: Les Monts
Ballot box: 4166 (Voting day)

Twenty votes difference between votes for Councilor (89) and Mayor (68). At the same time, we notice a huge gap between candidate Eric Ralph Mercier (38) and mayoral candidate Jean-Fran்கois Kozelin (26) among Quebec 21 voters. A total of 24 votes were cast in the city council.

See also