Do you have the right ID to cast a ballot in a federal election?

[{~_~} Раиса]

. . . Than what was acceptable at the polling station before.

Know what will be required and be ready with it.
It would be great if those of you who give a damn about the voting
system in this country would help out an elderly or infirm person to
also get the right ID so that they are also able to cast a vote.
___________________________________________________
CBC News Posted: Mar 29, 2014

Do you have the right ID to cast a ballot in a federal election?
Bill C-23 would remove vouching as a method of proving a voter's
address. What else is there?


Pierre Poilievre, Minister of State for Democratic Reform says there are
39 forms of identification that let people prove their name and address
when they vote in a federal election, allowing them to end vouching as
an alternative. How easy is it to prove you are who you say you are when
you cast a ballot?


Much of the debate over the government's proposed changes to Canadian
election laws has focused on its plan to eliminate vouching, a process
that lets those without proper identification have someone else in the
same polling division swear to their name and address.

Approved ID for federal votes

Driver's licence
Ontario health card
Provincial/territorial ID card in some provinces/territories
Canadian passport
Certificate of Canadian citizenship (citizenship card)
Birth certificate
Certificate of Indian status (status card)
Social insurance number card
Old age security card
Student ID card
Liquor ID card
Hospital/medical clinic card
Credit/debit card
Employee card
Public transportation card
Library card
Canadian Forces ID card
Veterans Affairs Canada health card
Canadian Blood Services/Héma-Québec card
CNIB ID card
Firearm possession and acquisition licence or possession only licence
Fishing, trapping or hunting licence
Outdoors or wildlife card/licence
Hospital bracelet worn by residents of long-term care facilities
Parolee ID card
Utility bill (telephone, TV, PUC, hydro, gas or water)
Bank/credit card statement
Vehicle ownership/insurance
Correspondence issued by a school, college or university
Statement of government benefits (employment insurance, old age
security, social assistance, disability support or child tax benefit)
Attestation of residence issued by the responsible authority of a
First Nations band or reserve
Government cheque or cheque stub
Pension plan statement of benefits, contributions or participation
Residential lease/mortgage statement
Income/property tax assessment notice
Insurance policy
Letter from a public curator, public guardian or public trustee
One of the following, issued by the responsible authority of a
shelter, soup kitchen, student/senior residence, or long-term care
facility: attestation of residence, letter of stay, admission form or
statement of benefits

A less-discussed change proposed in Bill C-23 would also roll back a
pilot program that allowed 400,000 people to use their voter information
card as proof of address in the 2011 election.

Those who work to promote democracy — the current and former heads of
Elections Canada, along with other experts — say removing those options
would essentially deny the vote to tens of thousands of people. Harry
Neufeld, who studied problems in the 2011 campaign, says 520,000 people
could lose their right to vote.

The Conservatives say there are 39 forms of ID that let people prove
their name and address when they vote in a federal election, arguing
that's enough to get rid of vouching and the use of the voter
information cards as proof of address.

But how easy is it to prove you are who you say you are when you cast a
ballot?

The experts who so far have appeared before the procedure and House
affairs committee have raised concerns about the list provided by
Elections Canada, and defended by Pierre Poilievre, minister of state
for democratic reform.

The biggest catch seems to be the need for voters to prove where they
live. Take away the driver's licence, and it gets complicated.

Here are three things to know about the way Bill C-23 would change how
Canadians could identify themselves to cast ballots in federal elections.


1. Few pieces of ID list address

Voters don't just prove their identity to cast a ballot: they have to
prove where they live too.
And while Elections Canada says 85 per cent of Canadians have a driver's
licence — based on the numbers they get from provincial licensing
offices — that penetration drops in urban areas like Vancouver, Toronto
and Montreal, where better public transit systems mean fewer people
require cars to get around.

One of the democracy experts appearing before the committee Thursday
made that point. Student Vote's Taylor Gunn, who lives in Toronto, told
the committee that he doesn't have a driver's licence.

"My health card, embarrassingly enough, is my only piece of official ID
and it doesn't have my address on it. My wife couldn't vouch for me
right now [under Bill C-23]," Gunn said.

Government issued ID like social insurance number cards and birth
certificates do not show an address. Canadian passports allow people to
write in their own address, so can't be used as proof of residence.


2. Originals required

No driver's licence? No problem. Poilievre told MPs in question period
Friday that photo ID and government-issued ID aren't required. His
critics, however, say it's not that easy.

The list of accepted identification includes "things like utility bills,
[Old Age Security] or Employment Insurance cheques, statement of
attestation from aboriginal reserve, Indian status card, a student card,
the list goes on and on. It's 39 different options. We just think it's
reasonable that people bring some form of ID when they show up to vote,"
Poilievre said.

The list also includes bank statements and insurance policies. Unless,
that is, the documents are delivered by email. A printed version of
emailed documents won't suffice. Instead, voters would have to go to the
bank or the hydro or insurance company — or dig through their paper
files at home — to find an original copy. And they'll have to know that
before they head to the polling station to cast a ballot on the advance
polling day or election day.


3. Other options

For those who don't have a driver's licence, they could present a lease
or have a letter of attestation from a shelter, soup kitchen, student or
senior residence, or long-term care facility. But that requires more
planning than simply heading to the polling station on election day.

Neufeld, the former chief electoral officer in British Columbia and now
a consultant, says if the government is worried about vouching, there
are ways to make it more secure.

There are problems, he says, including rushed poll clerks not keeping
detailed records of who is vouching, or for whom they are vouching.

He said he likes a method used in Manitoba elections.

"If they have two pieces of ID but neither of them definitively proves
their residential address, then they have to sign a declaration that the
address they're claiming to live at is indeed their address," Neufeld
said Thursday after speaking to MPs.

[{~_~} Раиса]

On 3/29/2014 3:04 PM, {~_~} Раиса wrote:

A warning from a chief electoral officer:
________________________________________________

Saturday, March 29, 2014 - http://www.hilltimes.com/


Ending vouching, voter ID cards could disenfranchise 520,000 in next
election, says elections expert Neufeld

The government came under its most severe criticism yet Thursday over
controversial plans to amend federal election law, with a former chief
electoral officer for British Columbia accusing the Conservatives of
attempting to ‘tilt the playing field’ in their favour.


PARLIAMENT HILL—The government came under its most severe criticism yet
Thursday over controversial plans to amend federal election law, with a
former chief electoral officer for British Columbia accusing the
Conservatives of attempting to “tilt the playing field” in their favour.

Former B.C. elections chief Harry Neufeld, who has also advised
developing countries building impartial electoral systems around the
globe, said measures that would eliminate vouching for voters with
insufficient ID and prohibit an Elections Canada voter information card
as proof of address would deny at least 250,000 electors their right to
vote.

Combined with another measure in the election legislation, Bill C-23,
that would increase the number of partisan supervisors nominated for
polling stations, the change “makes people wonder whether this process
is really being administered in a completely neutral way,” Mr. Neufeld
said after an hour of testimony at the Procedure and House Affairs
Committee hearing expert witnesses on the controversial legislation.

Mr. Neufeld predicted court challenges from electors who would be unable
to cast ballots in the next election if the legislation passes and said
the government should “either amend it or pull it.”

Conservative MPs on the Procedure and House Affairs committee repeatedly
focused on a report from Mr. Neufeld’s audit of the 2011 election -
which found widespread “irregularities” in the way rushed poll officials
handled voter vouching, where neighbors, acquaintances or relatives of
electors could vouch for them, but no evidence of voter fraud.

“To me, it appears like they are trying to tilt the playing field in one
direction,” Mr. Neufeld said after reporters several times asked him
what he thought was the government’s goal.

Asked which direction, Mr. Neufeld said: “Their direction.”

Mr. Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton, Ont.) ignored opposition questions about
Mr. Neufeld’s statement during Commons question period, and also brushed
aside other observations Neufeld made, including the fact that neither
Mr. Poilievre nor anyone else asked him about his report or consulted
him as the government drafted the legislation.

The bill includes other measures the opposition says would benefit the
Conservatives, including an increase of at least $1-million in the
campaign spending limit for political parties, with increases as well
for candidate spending, but an exemption for fundraising costs while
soliciting past donors for new contributions during an election.

“Mr. Neufeld is entitled to author recommendations; he is not entitled
to author the law, that is left to Parliamentarians,” Mr. Poilievre said
in the House.

“At no time did I ever agree with his recommendations. I don’t agree
with them, and that is why they’re not in the bill, but I do agree with
the facts that are put down in the report, which found 50,000
irregularities linked to vouching in the last election. We deal with
that problem by ending the process of vouching and making the reasonable
request that people bring one of 39 pieces of identification that will
demonstrate their address and their identify,” he said.

Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand has pointed out during committee
testimony that many approved ID documents, such as utility bills with
addresses, are not available to hundreds of thousands of voters, while
others, such as student cards or aboriginal status cards, might have
photo but not an addresses.

The only single ID documents that are acceptable to prove identity and
address are government issued identification, such as or similar to
driver’s licences with a photo and address or a health card with photo
and address.

A Conservative MP the government brought in to lead the committee
questioning of Mr. Neufeld on Thursday, Erin O’Toole (Durham, Ont.),
Parliamentary Secretary to Trade Minister Ed Fast (Abbotsford, B.C.),
rejected Mr. Neufeld’s assessment of motives.

“Certainly I don’t agree with that,” Mr. O’Toole told The Hill Times
after the committee meeting. “I spent my questions on vouching, which
his own report says is deeply, deeply flawed, and almost impossible to
fix, which is why I would say the majority of jurisdictions in Canada
have moved away from, or never experimented with, an area that he
acknowledged in there has rampant errors.”

Mr. O’Toole pointed also to a Supreme Court ruling that confirmed the
2011 election of Conservative MP Ted Opitz (Toronto-Centre, Ont.), after
an Ontario Superior Court judge overthrew his election because of more
than 50 irregularities in vouching records and other errors. The Supreme
Court reduced the number of incorrect vouching irregularities that would
have had an effect on the outcome, and noted there was no evidence of fraud.

(Page 2 of 2)

“This is a case where we’ve taken Mr. Neufeld’s report, we’ve seen the
Supreme Court decision and its clarifications, and are making changes to
eliminate some areas that are prone to major irregularities, like
vouching,” Mr. O’Toole told The Hill Times.

“There is a change, sometimes the people that are accustomed to the old
ways of doing things resist change the most, and I think that’s the
case,” he said.

Mr. Mayrand and Mr. Neufeld have both pointed out his audit of four
federal electoral districts for the 2011 election and three federal
byelections in 2012 found no evidence of fraud.

“The majority of errors were documentation, people just got confused,”
Mr. Neufeld said Thursday.

“They couldn’t figure out who a vouchee and who a voucher was, sometimes
they recorded it as the mother of a son, and they didn’t know who it was
that was being vouched for,” he said. “Quite frankly, I think in a lot
of cases, there’s an oral oath process that the person who votes must go
through, and they would administer that and there’s 20, 30 people
waiting in line, and they would take shortcuts and forget about the
documentation.”

“In some cases they would know who it was and they would say ‘it’s just
not worth the trouble of going all this administrative, bureaucratic
process for somebody that lives across the street from me,’” Mr. Neufeld
told reporters.

His report recommended improvements in the administration of vouching
and training, and the approval for all electoral districts of the
Elections Canada voter information card as proof of address.

Despite Mr. Poilievre’s concerns over the findings from the report, Mr.
Neufeld said the Cabinet Minister did not question him about it or even
contact him.

“I was waiting for that call, and it never came,” Mr. Neufeld said in
response to opposition questions at the Committee hearing.

Elections Canada conducted a pilot project of voter information cards as
proof of address for selected aboriginal reserves, senior citizen
residences and long-term care facilities, as well as university campuses
with a high incidence of mobility among students for the 2011 federal
election.

The results of the special allowance for voter information cards as ID
in those polling stations, combined with elimination of vouching, which
was used for an estimated 120,000 electors in 2011, showed that
elimination of the vouching system and the voter card as ID could affect
more than 500,000 voters, and at the minimum deny 250,000 the right to
vote, Mr. Neufeld said.

“Four hundred thousand people who were allowed to use the VIC card last
time would not be allowed to use it this time, 120,000 people who were
allowed to vouch last time would not be allowed to vouch this time,” Mr.
Neufeld said. “That math is 520,000 people.”

“Now, some of them may, with a really vigorous advertising campaign, get
the ID they need, but I’d say generously you might get half of those
people to show up with ID, but you’re looking at least at a quarter
million people who won’t be able to vote,” he said.

[Greg Carr]

Post by {~_~} Раиса
________________________________________________
Saturday, March 29, 2014 - http://www.hilltimes.com/
Ending vouching, voter ID cards could disenfranchise 520,000 in next
election, says elections expert Neufeld
The government came under its most severe criticism yet Thursday over
controversial plans to amend federal election law, with a former chief
electoral officer for British Columbia accusing the Conservatives of
attempting to ‘tilt the playing field’ in their favour.
PARLIAMENT HILL—The government came under its most severe criticism yet
Thursday over controversial plans to amend federal election law, with a
former chief electoral officer for British Columbia accusing the
Conservatives of attempting to “tilt the playing field” in their favour.
Former B.C. elections chief Harry Neufeld, who has also advised
developing countries building impartial electoral systems around the
globe, said measures that would eliminate vouching for voters with
insufficient ID and prohibit an Elections Canada voter information card
as proof of address would deny at least 250,000 electors their right to
vote.
Combined with another measure in the election legislation, Bill C-23,
that would increase the number of partisan supervisors nominated for
polling stations, the change “makes people wonder whether this process
is really being administered in a completely neutral way,” Mr. Neufeld
said after an hour of testimony at the Procedure and House Affairs
Committee hearing expert witnesses on the controversial legislation.
Mr. Neufeld predicted court challenges from electors who would be unable
to cast ballots in the next election if the legislation passes and said
the government should “either amend it or pull it.”
Conservative MPs on the Procedure and House Affairs committee repeatedly
focused on a report from Mr. Neufeld’s audit of the 2011 election -
which found widespread “irregularities” in the way rushed poll officials
handled voter vouching, where neighbors, acquaintances or relatives of
electors could vouch for them, but no evidence of voter fraud.
“To me, it appears like they are trying to tilt the playing field in one
direction,” Mr. Neufeld said after reporters several times asked him
what he thought was the government’s goal.
Asked which direction, Mr. Neufeld said: “Their direction.”
Mr. Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton, Ont.) ignored opposition questions about
Mr. Neufeld’s statement during Commons question period, and also brushed
aside other observations Neufeld made, including the fact that neither
Mr. Poilievre nor anyone else asked him about his report or consulted
him as the government drafted the legislation.
The bill includes other measures the opposition says would benefit the
Conservatives, including an increase of at least $1-million in the
campaign spending limit for political parties, with increases as well
for candidate spending, but an exemption for fundraising costs while
soliciting past donors for new contributions during an election.
“Mr. Neufeld is entitled to author recommendations; he is not entitled
to author the law, that is left to Parliamentarians,” Mr. Poilievre said
in the House.
“At no time did I ever agree with his recommendations. I don’t agree
with them, and that is why they’re not in the bill, but I do agree with
the facts that are put down in the report, which found 50,000
irregularities linked to vouching in the last election. We deal with
that problem by ending the process of vouching and making the reasonable
request that people bring one of 39 pieces of identification that will
demonstrate their address and their identify,” he said.
Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand has pointed out during committee
testimony that many approved ID documents, such as utility bills with
addresses, are not available to hundreds of thousands of voters, while
others, such as student cards or aboriginal status cards, might have
photo but not an addresses.
The only single ID documents that are acceptable to prove identity and
address are government issued identification, such as or similar to
driver’s licences with a photo and address or a health card with photo
and address.
A Conservative MP the government brought in to lead the committee
questioning of Mr. Neufeld on Thursday, Erin O’Toole (Durham, Ont.),
Parliamentary Secretary to Trade Minister Ed Fast (Abbotsford, B.C.),
rejected Mr. Neufeld’s assessment of motives.
“Certainly I don’t agree with that,” Mr. O’Toole told The Hill Times
after the committee meeting. “I spent my questions on vouching, which
his own report says is deeply, deeply flawed, and almost impossible to
fix, which is why I would say the majority of jurisdictions in Canada
have moved away from, or never experimented with, an area that he
acknowledged in there has rampant errors.”
Mr. O’Toole pointed also to a Supreme Court ruling that confirmed the
2011 election of Conservative MP Ted Opitz (Toronto-Centre, Ont.), after
an Ontario Superior Court judge overthrew his election because of more
than 50 irregularities in vouching records and other errors. The Supreme
Court reduced the number of incorrect vouching irregularities that would
have had an effect on the outcome, and noted there was no evidence of fraud.
(Page 2 of 2)
“This is a case where we’ve taken Mr. Neufeld’s report, we’ve seen the
Supreme Court decision and its clarifications, and are making changes to
eliminate some areas that are prone to major irregularities, like
vouching,” Mr. O’Toole told The Hill Times.
“There is a change, sometimes the people that are accustomed to the old
ways of doing things resist change the most, and I think that’s the
case,” he said.
Mr. Mayrand and Mr. Neufeld have both pointed out his audit of four
federal electoral districts for the 2011 election and three federal
byelections in 2012 found no evidence of fraud.
“The majority of errors were documentation, people just got confused,”
Mr. Neufeld said Thursday.
“They couldn’t figure out who a vouchee and who a voucher was, sometimes
they recorded it as the mother of a son, and they didn’t know who it was
that was being vouched for,” he said. “Quite frankly, I think in a lot
of cases, there’s an oral oath process that the person who votes must go
through, and they would administer that and there’s 20, 30 people
waiting in line, and they would take shortcuts and forget about the
documentation.”
“In some cases they would know who it was and they would say ‘it’s just
not worth the trouble of going all this administrative, bureaucratic
process for somebody that lives across the street from me,’” Mr. Neufeld
told reporters.
His report recommended improvements in the administration of vouching
and training, and the approval for all electoral districts of the
Elections Canada voter information card as proof of address.
Despite Mr. Poilievre’s concerns over the findings from the report, Mr.
Neufeld said the Cabinet Minister did not question him about it or even
contact him.
“I was waiting for that call, and it never came,” Mr. Neufeld said in
response to opposition questions at the Committee hearing.
Elections Canada conducted a pilot project of voter information cards as
proof of address for selected aboriginal reserves, senior citizen
residences and long-term care facilities, as well as university campuses
with a high incidence of mobility among students for the 2011 federal
election.
The results of the special allowance for voter information cards as ID
in those polling stations, combined with elimination of vouching, which
was used for an estimated 120,000 electors in 2011, showed that
elimination of the vouching system and the voter card as ID could affect
more than 500,000 voters, and at the minimum deny 250,000 the right to
vote, Mr. Neufeld said.
“Four hundred thousand people who were allowed to use the VIC card last
time would not be allowed to use it this time, 120,000 people who were
allowed to vouch last time would not be allowed to vouch this time,” Mr.
Neufeld said. “That math is 520,000 people.”
“Now, some of them may, with a really vigorous advertising campaign, get
the ID they need, but I’d say generously you might get half of those
people to show up with ID, but you’re looking at least at a quarter
million people who won’t be able to vote,” he said.

I agree with Mr.Neufeld shame on the Tories. They have more money than
the other parties and a proven track record to run on no need to tilt
the playing field.