Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
This amendment is a security measure to better strengthen the integrity of the voting process with respect to ensuring that ballot boxes are appropriately secured. Elections Canada does have certain procedures in place, obviously, with respect to chain of custody and how ballot boxes are secured, but I would submit that those rules are simply inadequate to ensure the integrity and security of our elections.
At present, a DRO can take a ballot box from an advance polling location to store it at their home overnight. Yes, the ballot box is sealed and signed. There's an official transport bag. There are signatures required before the ballot box is sealed, taken home, brought back to the polling location and then reopened. However, the idea that DROs are taking ballot boxes, with potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of ballots, to their homes opens the door to potentially real problems.
Fortunately, to my knowledge, there hasn't been any major incident, but that is not to say that something like that might not arise. We shouldn't react when something happens that causes issues with the integrity of the voting process. Frankly, we should have the foresight to take preventative measures. This is one measure that I think is eminently reasonable. It's simply to require that ballot boxes be sealed and stored under lock and key at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, and that there be video surveillance, so that there's no question about who has come in contact with that ballot box while it is being stored. If there is any tampering, there would be evidence of that to initiate any prosecution.
I recognize that there are some practical challenges, given the geographic size of certain ridings in rural areas and in the north, ridings like Nunavut, but this amendment would provide that the Chief Electoral Officer could specify alternative measures. It's not a one-size-fits-all amendment. It does give the Chief Electoral Officer flexibility where appropriate. In most ridings, certainly in virtually every urban riding, there is no reason for a DRO to be taking a ballot box back to their home. There is no practical impediment as to why they could not simply bring the ballot box to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer and store the ballot box or boxes under lock and key, with a surveillance camera. Yes, it may not be practical in all 342 ridings, but in the vast majority of ridings, it is quite logistically possible. It also provides that the Chief Electoral Officer can make certain exceptions where appropriate.
The integrity of the voting process is paramount. In order to ensure that the process is carried out, not only must the process be carried out with full integrity, but there must also be public confidence in that process.
This amendment, I believe, will help safeguard our elections and also enhance public confidence that our elections are being administered in a way that ensures that every ballot is counted and will guard against any sort of abuse or tampering with ballots.
Not only that, but just even in good faith, the idea that DROs are carrying around ballot boxes and, for example, are storing them in their homes, etc., in a G7 democracy.... That just doesn't seem to be up to the level that I think most Canadians would expect in terms of how the ballots they cast when they go out and vote are being secured.