Liberal party members need more time to vote in leadership race, Karina Gould says

Gould’s campaign commended the party’s efforts to avoid any problems, but said there should be more time given the number of people trying to vote. “The Gould campaign is requesting the Liberal Party of Canada provide an extension of 24 hours for the vote verification process,” said Emily Jackson, a campaign spokesperson. “The party has pulled out all the stops to get individuals verified.

We commend them for their efforts to date, however with thousands still actively trying to verify their identification, we would ask the party to keep the verification process open for an additional 24 hours.” Currently, supporters have until Friday afternoon at 5 p.m.



to be verified and then have until 3 p.m. on Sunday to vote.

The winner is expected to be announced late Sunday afternoon. The Star reported last week that many Liberal supporters were struggling with the verification process and had faced long waits on hold with party staff to resolve their issues. In response, party spokesperson Parker Lund said they were confident in the process the party had set.

“The Liberal party has created the most secure and accessible voting process in Canadian history for the 2025 leadership race,” he said last week. On the social media site X, the party said that 125,000 people had been verified and 100,000 people had cast their ballot. When the party cut off new membership sign-ups in late January, they said they had nearly 400,000 potential voters.

The Star reached out to Lund again on Thursday, but had not heard back. The party changed the rules in this leadership race to limit voting to Canadian citizens and permanent residents, due to foreign interference concerns..