These are electors whose names appeared on the list of electors for the last federal events, as well as electors who have asked to be added to the Register. To prepare preliminary voters' lists for use in federal elections and referendums. As well, the Canada Elections Act authorizes the Chief Electoral Officer to transmit copies of lists of electors, both electronic and paper, to candidates and political parties during a federal electoral event, and the Members of Parliament and political parties on October 15 of each year between electoral events. It also authorizes the giving of information contained in the Register of Electors to any body responsible under a provincial law for establishing a list of electors. The law permits this information to be used for electoral purposes only.
Offences are punishable by law.
However, it may happen that a delay occurs between the date on which the data is sent to the jurisdiction and the date on which the data is used by the jurisdiction. During that period, Elections Canada can receive opt-out requests from electors desiring that their information be removed from the National Register of Electors or used for federal electoral purposes only. Consequently, the data that is sent to the jurisdiction includes information about electors whose requests were received after the fact. In those cases, Elections Canada may provide jurisdictions which received information about electors who have opted out after the data taken from the National Register of Electors was sent, but before it was used by the jurisdiction with the opted out status of those electors. This disclosure is aimed at preventing any useof that information by the jurisdiction.