Here's why voters in an upcoming byelection will be casting ballots nearly a metre long

When voters in Toronto-St. Paul's go to the polls later this month, they might be wishing the ballot had a search function.

A record 84 people have put their names forward as candidates for the June 24 byelection, making it the longest ballot ever in a federal election.

Dozens of independent candidates have entered the race as part of an organized protest against Canada's first-past-the-post voting system.

«We need to highlight the fact that our voting system is a joke and it's producing results that are completely Inaccurate and distorted,» said Glen MacDonald, a candidate in Toronto-St. Paul's and a volunteer with the group Longest Ballot Committee.

MacDonald pointed to the last two elections, which the Liberals won despite losing the popular vote.

The Longest Ballot Committee has encouraged candidates to put their names forward in protest in two previous byelections — in the Ontario riding of Mississauga-Lakeshore in 2022 and last year in Winnipeg South Centre, which previously held the record for most candidates. For Toronto-St. Paul's, the group has roughly doubled the number of candidates on the ballot; the previous two campaigns had 40 and 48 candidates respectively.

Julie St-Amand, who has put her name on the ballot for all three of those byelections, said advocacy campaigns in the past haven't been effective and she hopes the high number of candidates is drawing attention to the electoral reform debate.

«By just getting more people aware and talking about it, we're hoping it just spreads like wildfire,» she said.

Elections Canada has had to make a number of temporary changes to the Elections Act in order to accommodate the oversized ballots. (The law allows the head of Elections Canada to make short-term changes in the