Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is again defending Québec solidaire (QS) initiatives that encouraged young people on campus to change their address, a day after a message from his party's Rimouski candidate.
In a Sunday Instagram post, Carol-Ann Kack reminded voters they had until Monday to change their address online, with a link to proceed with this change.
The message was accompanied by a map of Quebec from the polling site Quebec125, showing that if young people aged 18 to 34 were the only voters, many ridings would go to QS.
In addition to the Instagram post, leaflets were distributed on university campuses urging students to change their address and vote for QS where they study. The party later said it removed the leaflets to avoid entering a debate on the interpretation of electoral law.
Party spokesperson Nadeau-Dubois said the action was nevertheless above board.
"The law is clear. It allows people to change their address to ensure that they vote in the right district, that is to say, their district where they have their home," he said Monday at a Quebec City press conference.
"What we remind people is that they have that option. It is legal. The DGEQ [Elections Quebec general director] has never deemed us in contravention of the law," he continued.
But the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) believes otherwise, and says it has filed a complaint with the DGEQ.
Francois Legault's party believes that, in the eyes of the law, a voter's listed domicile must be a permanent address and not a temporary one.
Nadeau-Dubois, meanwhile, accused the CAQ of "[putting] obstacles in the way of Québec solidaire to ensure that young people do not vote where they have their domicile."
"The CAQ is putting a lot, a lot of energy into stopping young people from voting in the riding where they live," he said.
The DGEQ did not confirm or deny the receipt of any complaints.
However, Elections Quebec said the definition of domicile is the place a person "considers to be his or her main residence, which he or she refers to for the exercise of his or her civil rights and which he or she indicates publicly," in particular to government authorities and for their tax return.
The DGEQ added that the spirit of campus voting is to allow students to exercise their right to vote without travelling to their home constituency, which is often their parents' home.
"Nearly 80 per cent of the votes cast on campus in the 2014 and 2018 elections were actually counted in a constituency other than the campus constituency," spokesperson Julie St-Arnaud Drolet said by email.
This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on Sept. 19, 2022.
