Montreal man fined for voting twice during 2019 federal election

FILE - A woman casts her ballot in the riding of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, west of Montreal, on election day, Monday, Oct. 19, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Graham Hughes

A Montreal man has been fined by the Commissioner of Canada Elections for intentionally voting in two different ridings during the 2019 federal election.

David Gilchrist was issued the $1,250 fine after he admitted to two Elections Canada officials on Oct. 12, 2019, that he had cast a ballot twice "with the intention to test the electoral system," the commissioner's office said in a notice on Tuesday.

He cast the first ballot on Sept. 23, 2019 by special ballot in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount electoral district. Then on Oct. 11, 2019, he accompanied his father to an advanced polling station in the St-Laurent electoral district and voted again using his father's voter information card.

Gilchrist had an above-average knowledge of elections, according to the commissioner. He had worked as an election official in several elections at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels. He also served as a regional liaison officer in the Ukrainian presidential elections in 2004 and 2014, and acted as an international elections observer in Haiti in 2006.

"The fact he admitted to voting twice demonstrates a clear degree of intention, which is an aggravating factor under paragraph 508.6(1)(a) of the [Canada Elections Act]," according to a summary of the facts of the violation.

The commissioner publishes notices of administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) on its website, which states that the AMP is one tool under the Canada Election Act that is "designed to promote and ensure compliance, not to punish."