Mr. Mayrand, the problem with there being a lack of integrity to the voter information card and to the address list and the database on which it's based is not something new. It predates your tenure as the Chief Electoral Officer. I raised this matter with your predecessor. I've been on this committee for a long time.
I should stop. Before I go further, for the benefit of the bloggers in the back sitting behind you, it's the voter information card and not the voter identification card. A few of you have been incorrectly saying it's the voter identification card. The letter “I” is for information. It's information about where you should vote. It's not to identify you.
This is relevant because on April 27, 2006, I told your predecessor, Mr. Kingsley, that in the 2006 election I received three voter cards. There is of course only one of me. I was living alone at the time. One came in addressed to Scott Reid, one to Jeffrey Reid, and one to Scott Jeffrey Reid. That's in fact my full name.
It is possible to vote at the returning office. Your name gets stricken off. Scott Reid could be stricken off there. Jeffrey Reid could be stricken off at the advance poll, and on election day, the third name could be stricken off.
For someone as prominent as a sitting MP, that's probably an unwise and imprudent idea, but you see the point. There is such a profound inaccuracy in the voter's list that I had three cards. It's a database issue, but a profound issue.
After that time, I moved. My wife and I received voter cards at our new address which is 211 Montgomery Park Road in Mississippi Mills in one riding. Because I had filled out my address one way, I received a voter card telling me to vote in the Almonte town hall. My wife received a voter card, because we're at Rural Route 1, Carleton Place, for a different riding, telling her to vote in a different riding.
There are lots of errors. I realize one can't use one's own example as proof of a systematic problem, but there is a problem here, meaning that this is not, contrary to your assertion, a reliable system with a lot of integrity.
When you say a 10% error rate, that's the flip of 90% accurate. That's 10%. I'm not sure how many voters there are in Canada, maybe 20 million?