Ms. Fahmy, I want to pick up where we left off. I ran out of time on that last part that I wanted to discuss with you.
I appreciate that you indicated specifically that university students weren't necessarily your expertise, but obviously, in encouraging people to be a part of participating in democracy and elections, I know you did have a focus on young people, so you obviously have picked up some knowledge along the way. I would like to focus on that a little bit.
Where I was going with it, basically, was when one's away at university—the reason I asked you about the numbers who live in residences—there are a couple of different options available. It all centres around where they determine their residence to be. That's where they're supposed to vote: where they determine their residence to be. Obviously, in the case where someone is away at university, if they do intend to return home to their parents' house in the summer, they may consider that as their residence, so the riding they are choosing to vote in would actually be different from where they are currently. Then there are other reasons that people would be in that situation on election day, for work or other reasons, and that could be the case.
There are provisions, of course, for people to be able to vote in their home riding, where they consider their residence to be and where they intend to return to. One of them is a special mail-in ballot that someone can ask for. I know people who have done that. It's a fairly simple process, something they can do. I also believe—and I do stand to be corrected, but I'm 99% sure I'm correct on this—that someone can go to a returning office elsewhere in the country and ask to vote by special ballot in their home riding by proving they are a resident of that riding. So there are options available.
We've had other witnesses who have appeared before us to talk specifically about the student situation, and my understanding is that it is generally not about proving their identity. That's usually not an issue. What we have had indicated to us is that it is about proving their address. Now, obviously, the reason that has been given to us is that they might have all their correspondence going to their parents' home, which would indicate to me that it would likely be what they would consider their residence to be, and likely they should be voting by one of those special ballot procedures, if that's the case.
However, if they do believe their residence is in fact where they are at school, there are options. That is one of the reasons that I asked you specifically about the idea of how many live in residence, because that's one option. They can have an attestation done as to their residence by the school. But there are also other forms of ID. If someone is considering that to be their permanent residence, obviously, this could be done. They could provide a bank or credit card statement, a utility bill, correspondence issued by the school—there is actually that information specific to a student that's given to them by the school—statements of government benefits, notices related to income tax, insurance policies, or even a residential lease or mortgage statement. Even a student who doesn't live in residence could simply provide their lease. I know there are situations where students have more than one living in a household, but they could certainly have their name added to the lease.
I guess my question is, would it be helpful for Elections Canada to be able to better communicate to people that there are these options in terms of special balloting or other forms of ID or letters they could provide? Would that be helpful if Elections Canada was to provide that information to you so they would be better able to know their options in terms of voting?