Procedure and House Affairs committee  Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to discuss with the Committee the conclusions of a feasibility study on adding the voter information card to the list of pieces of identification authorized by the Chief Electoral Officer. I would very much appreciate an opportunity to engage the Committee on these issues at a session at Elections Canada headquarters in Ottawa, later in June.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  One solution to alleviate their challenges in proving their address--again, I'm referring to the voter information card--is those students can be registered on campus. If they live in residence, they will receive a voter identification card at their residence. That could help establish their residence on campus, even though their driver's licence shows that they come from Halifax but they're studying in Ottawa.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —the voter information card.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  First I want to emphasize that the voter information card has not yet been added to the list of authorized pieces. Consequently, it will not be possible to use that card in the next election that was recently triggered. Over the next few months, we're going to conduct a feasibility study.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Over the next few months we will also be evaluating the feasibility of adding the voter information card to the list of authorized documents to make it easier for these electors and others to prove their addresses. Finally, we should consider whether the current provisions for vouching may be overly restrictive of electors' abilities to vouch for family members.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Interestingly--and I mentioned this in February--B.C. just had a provincial election, and one of the things that B.C. had was rules for identification that are similar to what we have at the federal level, but there they accepted the voter information card as one piece of ID that established at least the address and name of the elector. That is something that, in my view, should be considered at the federal level. The other interesting thing is that the rules on vouching at the provincial level, in B.C., at least, are somewhat more flexible.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You said, I believe, that only 1% of the voter information cards were sent back.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Canada Post, under an agreement we have with them, recovers the rejected voter information cards. Canada Post must then return these cards to us.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. Second, what is suggested in the report or what I suggest is not that the voter information card be the only ID accepted, but that it be one of the pieces of ID accepted. The difficulty we have with seniors, students, aboriginals and other groups is that we have often done a targeted revision and sent them out a card.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I have the list of the neighbours on my street, and I know that some of them have been gone for five or six years or have died. And yet they are still on the list. If people are allowed to use the voter information card, I think we are opening the door to fraud. I would ask you to be very cautious in this regard. On page 38 of your report, you talk about the problem getting our telephones connected quickly or reasonably quickly.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Of course, it will continue to happen in isolated instances. What we also make clear is that you can only vote once, and that the voter information card is a voter information card. But we're going to be instituting procedures that are even clearer, whereby the people at the polls will ask for the voter information card to be handed to the poll officials, and not used as ID, before they go to the deputy returning officer.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If an elector needed to update their information at that stage, generally it would be the RO they would need to contact, rather than the CEO, and the voter information card, under the act, already has a phone number that needs to be prescribed on it. So those are some considerations.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We have already dealt with 2.2, 2.4, and 2.5. On 2.6, “Authority to Determine When to Send Out Voter Information Cards”, I will read this: The Chief Electoral Officer seeks greater flexibility in determining when to issue Voter Information Cards. Currently, they are to be sent as soon as possible after the issuance of the writ, but not later than the 24th day before election day.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't want to take up the time of the committee, but while we're on voter identification cards I would like a comment on Canada Post's handling of the voter information card. We've heard from various folks that these voter information cards are dumped en masse in apartment buildings. I guess the point is they're not treated as the first class mail we are paying for.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  All of the documents that are acceptable as proofs either of identity or of address are documents that have been discussed at the advisory committee of political parties, and a listing of them has been approved by them. We made it very clear again at the 2006 general election that the voter information card is a voter information card, not a voter identification card.