Confirmation

Current election legislation outlines the process for a provincial enumeration / confirmation prior to an provincial election.

Elections PEI  proposes some recommendations to address challenges and obstacles it's workers encountered with the 2019 confirmation of electors.
In the 2019 election, there were 270 polling divisions in the province, which means Elections PEI needed to hire 540 confirmation officers. These workers venture door to door in pairs. We were only able to recruit and hire 420 confirmation officers.
When the confirmation officers visited residential addresses, they would get confirmation of the eligible electors that live at the address.  Quite often, residents would not open their door to the confirmation officers and their elector information was neither provided nor confirmed.

Factors that may affect the success of the confirmation officer is inclement weather, safety hazards like dogs or animals, unlit entrances and walkways, uneven and unlit walkways. Urban areas have an increase of secured buildings confirmation officers cannot get entry. In 2019, the confirmation cost was over $234,000.

Elections PEI has made a few recommendations in the 2019 CEO Report to streamline the process of updating the Register of Electors to be accurate and cost effective.

The recommendations reads, Eliminate the requirement for a full province-wide confirmation prior to every election. Allow for targeted confirmation in high- density areas at the discretion and timing of the Chief Electoral Officer.

For more information regarding the confirmation process, please refer to the 2019 Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of PEI.