My name is Pierre F. Côté and for 19 years, I served as Quebec's Chief Electoral Office. I am now retired.
The issue of voter identification first surfaced in Quebec about ten years ago. Further to a proposal that I made to legislators, it was decided that passports, health insurance cards and drivers' licence would be considered acceptable photo identification. Thus, voters can be correctly identified and mainly this prevents cases of people voting for someone else.
During last March's elections, Quebec's Chief Electoral Officer invoked section 490 of the Quebec Elections Act—the equivalent of section 17 of the Canada Elections Acts—to prohibit individuals from voting if their face was covered. He invoked this provision once again in conjunction with the by-election in Charlevoix.