Voting for the new Liberal leader has begun. Here's how the process works

Voting in the Liberal leadership contest that will select Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's successor is now open.  

Registered Liberals have until March 9 at 3 p.m. ET to cast their vote with the expectation that the new Liberal Party of Canada leader will be announced later that day.

Some Liberals tell CBC News they are frustrated with the online process being used to register voters, and point to problems with the identity confirmation system being handled by Canada Post.

The first thing Liberals voting in the leadership contest have to do is verify their eligibility to vote. To be eligible, voters must have registered as a Liberal before 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 27, 2025.

The Liberal Party says those who met the registration deadline should have received a voter ID by email that they can use to confirm their eligibility. 

Liberals who have not received their voter ID by email can request it by filling out a short online form asking for their email, first name, postal code and date of birth.

Once registered Liberals have their voter ID, they can confirm their eligibility by entering it along with their postal code, date of birth and phone number in the party's online confirmation tool.  

Once Liberals have their voter ID and have confirmed that they are eligible to vote, they must then verify their identity either through the Canada Post Identity+ mobile app or in person at a participating post office. 

To help people use the mobile app, the Liberal Party has produced a video that will walk them through the process step by step.

Registered Liberals using the mobile app are required to begin by entering their email address. Once that's done, the app will send their email a code that they enter into the app to verify the email address. 

Next, the voter's picture will be captured automatically through the app. The image will be compared to a driver's licence or other ID card that the voter must upload after taking a picture of both sides of the document.

Canadian citizens then need to upload an image of their passport to prove citizenship. If they do not have a passport, they can upload other identity documents to confirm registration under the Indian Act or their permanent residency status.

Once their identity has been confirmed and an Identity+ ID created, the voter submits all the information to the Liberal Party for final verification, which then sends them an email with instructions on how to cast their ballot electronically. 

A 'really hellish' process

Eric Bogdanovs says that he and his wife Nancy Shaw had problems with every step of the process, and only after days of calling and emailing the party was he able to meet the identity requirements. Shaw is still trying.

"Somebody from the Liberal Party actually did respond finally," said Bogdanovs, who lives in Saint-Zotique, Que., on the St. Lawrence River just east of Cornwall, Ont. 

"I just managed to vote by a stroke of luck. I just did not give up."

Bogdanovs describes the process as "really hellish," leaving him concerned the Liberals will not be able to "succeed in running the [leadership] election."

Shaw says she was unable to use the app, so she went into the post office but had no luck there either on her first visit.

"We're old people. We have a hard time with these electronics," Shaw said. "This was really, really a challenge for us."

Ron Usher says that when he went to his local post office in Parksville, on Vancouver Island, the staff there got him past the troubles he was having with the selfie photo step. But they were unable to help him verify the photo against his B.C. driver's licence. 

The instructions for verifying the address on a driver's licence say people can take a picture of the change of address sticker on their licence and upload that, but Usher says that did not work for him.

Usher, a newly minted member of the party, said post office workers could see he had the correct sticker on his licence, but they had no way to manually verify that information. He says he does not blame post office staff, but rather the complicated verification system.

"The in-person thing didn't work," he said.

"I've sent them messages, I waited for 20 minutes on their help phone line," he said, adding that he has sent emails to the party's assistance desk but no one has gotten back to him. "It's been complete radio silence," he said. 

Usher says he is determined to vote in the race and will keep fighting to have his identity verified so he can participate in choosing the next Liberal leader.

Liberal Party defends voting system

The Liberal Party said in a statement to CBC News that the voting system for the Liberal leadership is "the most secure and accessible voting process in Canadian history." 

"The process is both flexible and secure with Registered Liberals being able to verify their identity and address using the Canada Post Identity+ mobile app, or in-person at over 6,000 participating Canada Post locations across the country," the party said. 

The party insists that the voting process comes with "clear and detailed instructions" and that anyone experiencing challenges will have their cases "looked at ahead of the voting deadline on March 9."