Voting open until April 28, 5 p.m. EDT – 2023 Bencher Election
Voting is open until April 28 (5 p.m. EDT) in the Law Society of Ontario’s bencher election. Thank you for voting, if you have already done so. If you have not, there’s still time.
Forty lawyers and five paralegals will be elected as benchers to sit in Convocation. Information about the election, including access to the Voting Guides for lawyers and paralegals with information about the candidates, is available on LSO.ca.
The election is being conducted through online and telephone voting systems. Voting instructions for eligible voters — lawyers and paralegals whose licences on April 12, 2023 were not suspended — are provided through their Law Society Portal account. They may also receive an email from Computershare, the company providing the voting website, with this information. The voting instructions include a control number required to access the online voting and telephone voting systems to cast votes.
For online voting:
Once voters access the election website through the link provided by Computershare, they will be prompted to enter their control number to login to the voting system where voting instructions and the list of candidates will be displayed. The Voting Guide for lawyers and the Voting Guide for paralegals are also available on the election site.
Lawyers vote for lawyer candidates and can cast 40 votes in total – 20 votes for candidates inside Toronto and 20 votes for candidates outside Toronto. Voters need not cast all 40 votes but the voting system will not permit voters to vote for more than 20 candidates in the section of ballot for inside Toronto and 20 candidates in the section of the ballot for outside of Toronto.
Paralegals vote for paralegal candidates and can cast five votes in total for candidates provincewide.
Voters select candidates by clicking the boxes next to the candidates’ names. Voters may only vote for a candidate once. Once voters have made their selections, they will then be prompted to review their selections and make any changes they want prior to final submission of their votes. Voters will receive a message confirming that their votes have been submitted. Voters can submit their votes only once.
For telephone voting:
Voters will call the dedicated election telephone number and will be prompted to enter or say their control number to access the voting system. Voters will be prompted to select the candidates of their choice by entering or saying the two-digit numeric code that appears beside each candidate’s name in the Voting Guide.
The system will not permit lawyer voters to vote for more than 20 inside Toronto lawyer candidates or more than 20 outside Toronto lawyer candidates. The system will not permit paralegal voters to vote for more than five candidates. When lawyer voters have finished selecting both the inside and outside Toronto candidates, the system will review their selections and ask voters to confirm them before recording the votes. When paralegal voters have finished selecting candidates, the system will review their selections and ask voters to confirm them before recording the votes.
If you are an eligible voter and have not received your voting instructions, you must contact Computershare. Lawyers should call 1-888-344-2805 or 514-982-2391, if outside Canada or the United States, to receive this information to vote. Paralegals should call 1-866-301-2518 or 514-982-8711, if outside Canada or the United States, to receive this information to vote.
Voting closes at 5 p.m. EDT on April 28, 2023.
Comments