Thank you very much, and thank you to our witnesses for joining us today.
We've heard from a number of elections officials and a number of public health officials who have said they're confident they can deliver an election in a way that is safe in principle. That is, if everybody follows the appropriate procedures, nobody should have anything to worry about in causing a COVID outbreak as a result of a vote.
What they've been reticent to comment on and haven't really tried to quantify is the extent to which we might see people simply choose not to vote because of a level of discomfort with voting, and the disenfranchisement that might occur. This is simply because people, for all of the proper precautions that have been taken by public health officials and election officials, just simply don't have that comfort level.
In terms of your membership, do you think there is a real risk that many people in long-term care, or many seniors more widely for that matter, will just simply be too worried about the potential health consequences of voting? That's whether it's voting in a personal-care home with outside staff who are coming in for that purpose, leaving their home to vote or not being sure they can navigate the application and implementation of a mail-in option. Do you think there's a real risk of seniors and people living in long-term care being disenfranchised if we hold an election during the pandemic?