Elections Ontario’s (EO) Research and Insights (R&I) unit is responsible for the evaluation of provincial election events as well as conducting research to support evidence-based decision making and organizational transformation through process improvements and strategy development at EO.
EO is conducting a public opinion polling survey legislated under the Election Act with a representative sample of eligible electors and political stakeholders in Ontario following the June 2, 2022 provincial general election. Section 67.1 (1) of the Election Act stipulates that the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) must conduct a survey to examine barriers to voting, adding names to the permanent register of electors or a polling list, polling places, casting votes, and any other matter identified by the CEO. Section 67.1 (2) stipulates that the findings must be included in a post-event report and/or the next annual report.
Elections Ontario requires a Vendor to provide the following services and deliverables which include, but are not limited to:
- Producing a research and project plan incorporating EO’s research methodology direction and guidance
- Using the survey questionnaire provided by EO for polling and providing a review and feedback of these survey questions in order to ensure best practices for survey design are incorporated
- Executing public opinion polling with a representative sample of eligible electors, as well as an oversample of specific elector groups in Ontario within 3 weeks following the 2022 provincial general election
- Executing public opinion polling with political entity stakeholders (Candidates, CFOs and Party Presidents)
- Executing public opinion polling with electors living in shelters across the province
- Providing an analysis and report of the collected data
- Providing Elections Ontario with all source data in an electronic format, following Elections Ontario’s data organization guidelines, with an accompanying codebook.
For the 2022 provincial general election, Elections Ontario will host a number of services for approximately 10.6 million electors, more than 20 political parties, 800 political candidates and 124 Returning Officers. The next provincial general election is currently scheduled for June 2, 2022, with the Writ period beginning on May 4, 2022 and lasting for 28 days. Advance polls begin 14 days before polling day and are available to electors for ten consecutive days. Special ballots are available at any time during the writ period before Election Day for electors who are unable to vote at an advance voting location or on Election Day or any other elector who requests them.
Elections Ontario has conducted extensive post-event public opinion polling through an independent third-party research firm for the past five provincial general elections in order to fulfil its legislated post-event reporting requirements.
In the past, the public opinion polling survey was used to collect key indicators such as the ease of the process, effectiveness of communications and outreach, the integrity of voting technology and barriers to voting. In addition to these indicators, the polling has also captured the demographic data of each individual polled. The results of the survey allow Elections Ontario to gain insight into the knowledge and experience of electors and political stakeholders to inform evidence-based decision-making as part of our commitment to foster public trust by continuously improving efficiency and integrity in election administration.
Elections Ontario plans to continue this post-event public opinion polling for the 2022 provincial general election. While some questions will remain consistent with prior versions of the survey to allow for time series analysis, additional questions will be added to capture new research objectives and data points. Elections Ontario will create and provide the survey questionnaires with questions for all surveys to the Vendor and will collaborate with the Vendor to ensure these questions are reviewed and revised to meet industry best practices in survey design.
For the 2022 election, Elections Ontario is adding several new initiatives to modernize our processes, including extended advance poll voting, a bank-teller service model at technology-enabled polls, as well as COVID-19 health and safety measures implemented across all voting locations. Significant promotion of online voter registration will occur in March 2022 to obtain an accurate voter registration list for the 2022 provincial election. Additionally, there have been significant legislative changes regarding campaign finance rules for political stakeholders. As such, in addition to similar questioning from past years, polling for the 2022 provincial election will include collecting qualitative and quantitative data on the impacts and successes of advance poll voting, the e-registration program and promotional activities, the new campaign finance rules, and COVID-19 health and safety measures.
The duration of the agreement to be entered into between the CEO and the successful Proponent(s) will be for a period of five (5) years.
