Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to Professor Scott, as well, for the gentlemanly way in which he withdrew his earlier language.
I wanted to spend a moment, if I could, dealing with the specifics of the use of the voter information card. I repeat, of course, that it's the voter information card not the voter identification card, an important distinction.
What in fact occurred in the 2011 general election is discussed on page 36 of the Chief Electoral Officer's report on that election, which I have in my hand, and which of course was distributed to all members of Parliament. On page 36, he describes the voter information card was used as proof of identity and address in a number of different locations during the 41st general election in 2011, including 745 polling stations on aboriginal reserves, a large number of polling stations in seniors' residences served by mobile polls, and also in a much smaller number of student residences, and he provides further details.
But this was in three specific narrow cases. He mentions in the case of students that in fact only a small number were able to take advantage of this. Many did not actually receive their cards, an item that also arises because we don't know where they live, and therefore can't issue voter information cards to them. It's an issue that also arises in the youth report that he provided.
That doesn't change the fact that for the country as a whole, the error rate is extraordinarily high for the voter information card. The voter information card, according to page 28 of this very same report, has an accuracy rate not of 90%—the preliminary list on which the voter information card is based—but of 93%. That's as to the person, so they got you right and didn't put somebody else down. They didn't put a deceased person on the list. The other 7% are people who aren't citizens, who are deceased, or where there's just simply an information error.
However, when it comes to the person's address—which is vital because this is being used, as I've just said, as proof of location of residence—the accuracy drops to 84%, a 16% error rate.
He goes on to say—and I'm quoting the Chief Electoral Officer here, all right? So I'm not misleading people, Mr. Scott. I'm quoting the report. “The currency of the lists in 10 ridings was estimated to have dropped to less than 75 percent.”
Now let's be clear about that. He doesn't say what dropped to 75%. I suspect that's accuracy with regard to the actual people. It may be—he doesn't explain—just accuracy with regard to addresses, in which case only 25% are getting the wrong information. It could be higher than that.
That constitutes a considerable problem that was not dealt with in the experiment he conducted. Nevertheless he indicated his intention to expand this across the country and make the use of that voter information card universal, including in ridings where 25% of them will send people to the wrong poll or will misinform people, etc.
That's the point at hand. Thank you.