Sarnia candidates can get your name and address. Here’s how it gets there

You may never have registered for this municipal election, but a chain of government voter databases can still put you on the list supplied to local candidates

If you are registered to vote in Sarnia’s municipal election, candidates running to represent you can obtain something many voters may not realize is available to them: your name and address.

They do not need to collect that information at your door, find you on social media or purchase it from a data broker.

Ontario election law gives certified municipal candidates the right to request the portion of Sarnia’s voters’ list containing the electors entitled to vote for the office they are seeking. Before receiving it, candidates must agree in writing to use the information only for electoral purposes and comply with rules controlling how it is shared, stored and eventually destroyed.

What may be less obvious is how a person gets onto that list in the first place.

You do not necessarily have to register yourself specifically for Sarnia’s 2026 election.

Ontario now operates a permanent voter-registration system, and behind Sarnia’s municipal voters’ list is a network of federal, provincial and municipal electoral information.

One possible route begins somewhere most people would not associate with a municipal candidate: an income-tax return.

Canadian citizens filing their taxes can consent to the Canada Revenue Agency providing information to Elections Canada. If they answer yes to the Elections Canada questions, CRA can provide their name, address and date of birth to update the National Register of Electors.

For an eligible person who is not already registered, Elections Canada says answering yes can also be treated as a request to be added to the register. If they are already registered, it can be used to keep their information current.

That transfer is voluntary. Simply filing an income-tax return does not send the information to Elections Canada; the taxpayer has to consent.

But once information enters the electoral-registration system, it can travel further.

Elections Canada’s National Register of Electors is a permanent, continually updated database rather than a new list built from scratch whenever an election is called. Elections Canada updates it through multiple sources, including CRA where taxpayers have consented, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, provincial and territorial electoral agencies and other authorized sources.

Elections Canada also shares voter-registration information with provincial and territorial electoral agencies. That information can include a voter’s name, address, date of birth and gender. Elections Canada says the sharing is intended to improve the accuracy of voters’ lists and reduce duplication and costs.

Ontario maintains its own Permanent Register of Electors.

Elections Ontario says that register is updated using information from federal, provincial and municipal sources, including Elections Canada’s National Register of Electors, as well as information supplied directly by voters.

Since 2024, Elections Ontario has also been responsible for providing municipalities with the preliminary information used to prepare their municipal voters’ lists.

One possible path therefore looks like this:

Taxpayer consents on income-tax return → CRA provides information to Elections Canada → Elections Canada maintains its National Register and shares registration information with Ontario → Elections Ontario maintains its Permanent Register → that information is used to prepare Sarnia’s voters’ list → certified candidates can request the portion covering their race.

That does not mean everyone on Sarnia’s voters’ list arrived there through their income-tax return. Both federal and provincial registers draw from multiple sources, and there is no reason to assume which source created or most recently updated any particular voter’s record.

It does mean someone can arrive on Sarnia’s 2026 voters’ list without sitting down and registering specifically for this municipal election, and without ever personally supplying their address to any of the candidates who may ultimately receive it.

Once the municipal list is prepared, Ontario law determines who can access it.

The voters’ list became a public document on Sept. 1. A certified candidate can make a written request to Sarnia’s clerk for the portion of the list covering the office they are seeking.

Candidates do not receive unrestricted ownership of that information.

Before receiving the list, a candidate must acknowledge in writing that it will be used only for electoral purposes, not commercial purposes, and that the candidate will follow the handling restrictions imposed by provincial election law.

If the candidate provides a copy to a campaign worker or someone else assisting the campaign, that person must first provide their own written acknowledgement. They cannot pass the list on to anyone else.

Candidates are required to keep track of who has received it. Physical copies must be returned to the candidate. Electronic copies have to be destroyed, and the recipient must provide written confirmation that the destruction took place.

When the campaign ends, the candidate must destroy the copy obtained from the clerk, destroy returned physical copies and make sure distributed electronic copies have also been destroyed. The candidate must retain the written acknowledgements and destruction confirmations until Nov. 15, 2030.

Those handling requirements are new for the 2026 municipal election.

The disclosure itself, however, is not a leak or an unintended consequence of government data sharing. Candidate access to voters’ lists is deliberately provided for under Ontario’s election rules.

The lists allow campaigns to identify eligible voters, organize canvassing and communicate with the electorate. The privacy protections are largely built around limiting how that information can be used and circulated, rather than preventing candidates from receiving it in the first place.

Voters who want to know whether their information is currently on Sarnia’s list can check for themselves.

Since Sept. 1, Sarnia has operated an Online Voter Services Portal. To check the list, a resident enters their name, date of birth and street address. The system will tell them whether they are registered at that address.

If the information is incorrect, or the person is missing from the list, Sarnia accepts applications to amend it.

Online amendment applications can be submitted until 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 23. Applications can also be made through the City Clerk’s Office, by mail, or at a designated voting place on voting day. Identification showing the applicant’s name and qualifying address is required when applying to be added or making applicable changes. Applications are reviewed by election officials rather than automatically accepted.

There are also several ways voters can limit how their electoral information is used or shared, but they do not all have the same consequences.

The simplest is to ask Sarnia’s clerk to remove your name from the municipal voters’ list.

Ontario says anyone who does not want their name to appear on the list can make that request. Sarnia accepts applications to add, remove or correct information during the voters’ list revision period running from Sept. 1 through voting day on Oct. 26.

But there is an important consequence: if you remove yourself from Sarnia’s voters’ list, you cannot vote while your name remains off it.

If you later change your mind, you have to apply to have yourself added again before voting.

There is a different option for people whose concern is personal safety.

Ontario law allows the Chief Electoral Officer to redact a voter’s information where the Chief Electoral Officer reasonably believes making it available would endanger that person’s life, health or security.

Unlike simply removing yourself from Sarnia’s list, an approved redaction does not take away your ability to vote.

The voter remains registered for election administration, but their personal information is removed from copies made available to candidates and from versions available for public inspection.

A voter seeking that protection can make a request to Elections Ontario at [email protected], or by mail to:

Elections Ontario
Attn: Chief Privacy Officer
26 Prince Andrew Place
Toronto, Ontario
M3C 2H4

The legal test is whether the Chief Electoral Officer reasonably believes releasing the information would endanger the person’s life, health or security.

There are also options farther upstream in the electoral-registration system.

Elections Canada allows electors to ask that their information not be provided to provincial and territorial electoral agencies. That request must be made in writing and include the elector’s name, date of birth, current home and mailing addresses and signature.

That is separate from removing yourself from the National Register of Electors altogether. Elections Canada also allows Canadians to be removed from the federal register without permanently giving up their right to vote federally, although they would have to register again before voting in a future federal election.

Elections Ontario likewise allows electors to limit some of the sharing of information contained in its provincial registers. Its voter-registration form includes options to opt out of sharing information with Elections Canada and with MPAC, the elector’s municipality and its local boards.

Those upstream options should not be confused with removing or redacting information already on Sarnia’s current 2026 voters’ list. The official guidance does not establish that changing federal or provincial sharing preferences now would retroactively erase information from a municipal list that has already been prepared.

For the current election, someone who wants their name removed from Sarnia’s list must deal with the municipal process. Someone who needs to remain registered while keeping their information out of candidate and public copies because disclosure creates a safety risk must use the Elections Ontario redaction process.

The system is built around information moving between electoral authorities so voters do not have to start from scratch every time an election is held.

By the time a Sarnia municipal election arrives, a resident may already be registered through information collected and maintained elsewhere in that system.

And once their name and address appear on Sarnia’s voters’ list, Ontario law allows certified candidates seeking their vote to request the applicable portion of it.

There are restrictions on how candidates can use that information, requirements to track who receives it and rules requiring it to be destroyed after the campaign. Voters can correct their information, remove themselves from the municipal list, limit some future data sharing or, where disclosure creates a safety risk, request that their information be withheld while retaining their ability to vote.

But those protections depend on voters knowing how the system works in the first place.

Sarnia residents can use the City’s Online Voter Services Portal now to check whether they are registered, and at what address, before voting begins Oct. 16.