Harvard Students Feel ‘Disenfranchised’ as Nearly 50 Canadian Mail-In Ballots Never Arrive

Canada ushered Liberal Party candidate Mark J. Carney ’87 into a full term as prime minister on Monday — but roughly 50 Canadian students at Harvard who applied for mail-in ballots were not able to vote.

As the election approached and students still did not receive their ballots from the Canadian election agency, the situation escalated to involve a formal complaint to Canada’s elections commissioner and unsuccessful attempts by Carney himself to rectify the slowdown.

The students registered to vote through a registration drive hosted by the Harvard Canadian Club on April 13, with help from the Harvard Votes Challenge. Canadians who register as international voters are automatically approved for mail-in ballots, and Elections Canada processed their requests on April 14.

Then, on April 16, the agency emailed students to say their ballots had been mailed.

But many of the ballots never arrived.

The Harvard Canadian Club had arranged for students’ ballots to be sent to the Canadian consulate in Boston and planned field trips to the consulate, where students would fill out their ballots and leave them with the consulate for shipping back to Canada. 53 students registered to vote through the club’s initiative, which aimed to expedite the process of shipping ballots between Boston and Ottawa.

The first field trip was planned for early last week, but by Wednesday the consulate still had not received the ballots. The Canadian Club pushed their field trips — from Wednesday, to Thursday, and eventually to Friday.

Club leaders also contacted Elections Canada to ask where the ballots were and why they were taking so long to arrive. But the agency — which does not track mailed ballots — was unable to provide any information or assistance, according to Thomas J. Mete ’26, who led the Harvard Canadian Club’s voter registration efforts.

By Thursday morning, four students were notified that their ballots had arrived, and all were able to fill out their ballots at the consulate. At least an additional 24 students — who registered independently of the Harvard Canadian Club and had ballots shipped to their personal addresses — were also able to vote.

That left 49 of the students who registered through Canadian Club’s efforts without their ballots.

Mete, who is a Crimson News editor, wrote in a Sunday email to Canadian Club members that the group had “filed an official complaint with the Commissioner of Canada Elections” and was “actively pursuing other avenues of recourse with assistance from Ottawa affiliates.” Mete declined to specify what groups or individuals the club was working with.

Elections Canada spokesperson Diane Benson wrote in response to a request for comment that the agency received a record number of requests for ballot kits this year.

“Elections Canada urges all electors considering voting from outside Canada to apply for a ballot as soon as possible, as different countries can experience different mail delivery times,” Benson wrote, noting that the Monday election was called March 23.

With the days ticking closer to the election, Canadian students began to worry.

Cleo N. Carney ’28 — the daughter of Mark Carney and a member of the Canadian Club — wrote to a group chat of Canadian students on Friday to say she had contacted her father about the delayed ballots.

“He’s called some people about this twice, but it seems so slow,” she wrote.

Cleo Carney confirmed in a statement that she had sent the message and wrote that she contacted her father — who had been serving as Canada’s prime minister since early March — in “his capacity as a Canadian citizen and voter, not a public official.”

“I believe that the power of young people lies in our vote, and that everybody, regardless of their political stance, should be able to exercise that right to vote,” she wrote. “Learning that fellow international students were facing even more barriers to voting was frustrating to me.”

Namirah Quadir ’25, a Harvard Canadian Club executive, was unable to vote because her ballot never showed up. She said the situation represented a “breakdown of trust” between Canadian students and Elections Canada.

“It’s not just a one-off mailing delay,” Quadir said. “We fulfilled every single requirement with time to spare, and Elections Canada simply didn’t make their basic obligation to deliver ballots and enable Canadians abroad to vote.”

Alice Yang ’26 thought at first that she could go home to visit her parents in Edmonton, Alberta, and vote there. But when the Trump administration began revoking student visas, she reconsidered and decided to request a mail-in ballot.

Mete told her about his efforts with the Canadian Club, and Yang registered to vote with help from the group. Her ballot never came to the consulate.

Jerry Li ’26 requested a ballot on his own, but he said his friends who registered through the Canadian Club were “frustrated” when they were unable to vote. Even he was left in suspense before his ballot came in, he said.

“I requested a mail-in ballot, and there was no status update at all, no expected time of when it would arrive,” he said.

Mete said he was frustrated that dozens of students could not vote, even though they “did everything that was required of them from Elections Canada, more than weeks ahead of the April 22 deadline to request a ballot.”

“These students are eager to participate in our democracy and fulfill their civic duty,” Mete said. “Yet they’re effectively being disenfranchised due to the inefficiency of Elections Canada and delivering ballots.”

“Frankly baffling that ballots could not be delivered roughly 700 kilometers in 14 days when there is access to expedited shipping,” he added.

—Staff writer Anneliese S. Mattox can be reached at anneliese.mattox@thecrimson.com.