Earlier this month, the Canadian official in charge of overseeing elections, Marc Mayrand, testified before a parliamentary committee examining the federal government’s proposed “Fair Elections Act.”
The bill includes stricter measures around what kind of proof of address allows a citizen to vote. The use of voter identification cards would be banned under the new legislation, as would vouching, where your identity is corroborated by another registered voter.
In other words, the “Fair Elections Act” will make it harder to vote. The Harper government claims this is necessary to cut down on voter fraud, although nobody has ever presented proof that voter fraud is a significant problem in Canada.
Mayrand told the committee that the “Fair Elections Act” has the emphasis in exactly the wrong place. “It is essential to understand that the main challenge for our electoral democracy is not voter fraud, but voter participation,” Mayrand said on March 6.
He said the integrity of the voting process would not be particularly enhanced by the new rules, and it will come at the cost of taking away “the ability of many qualified electors to vote.”
With this in mind, then, it is good to see that Ottawa’s city councillors and staff have their priorities straight when it comes to voter participation. On March 4, the finance and economic development committee unanimously passed a proposal to add three days of advance voting for the next municipal election, making it likely city council will give its final approval at its March 26 meeting.
Furthermore, voters will be able to cast those advance votes at any polling station in the city, as opposed to just their specific ward.
While it will have to be seen how much this actually increases voter turnout, it shows that the city is genuinely committed to improving voter access. “We’re just looking for additional ways that we can help voters exercise their franchise,” said Catherine Bergeron, the city’s manager of elections, in our news story this week.
Somerset Ward in particular would benefit from easier voting access. According to data on the City of Ottawa website, in each of the last three municipal elections Somerset has been among the wards with the lowest turnout. In 2003, Somerset was dead last in the city with only 25 per cent of registered voters casting a vote. In the 2010 election there was a 43-per-cent turnout in Somerset, which was only better than six other wards.
In the big picture, voter turnout still fluctuates significantly from one municipal election to the next. Experts say that the biggest factors driving turnout are the quality of the candidates, the intensity of the races and the relevancy of the issues. It is certainly possible that the results of adding three extra days of voting and removing geographic restraints will be negligible.
But at a time when the federal government is considering ways to restrict voting rights, it is refreshing to see city staff and politicians focused on increasing turnout. What we hope to see now are candidates engaging voters through robust and intelligent debates.