From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   National Post - | May 15, 2015   
      
   It could get ugly at polling stations this fall thanks to [Harper's] Fair   
   Elections Act   
      
      
   When Elections Canada mails out Voter Information Cards this fall, a new   
   sentence in bold letters will appear at the bottom: *Please note that this   
   card is not a piece of ID.*   
      
   This means that on election day, tens of thousands of people will likely turn   
   up at their polling station, voter cards in hand, only to learn that they   
   can’t vote.   
      
   In the last election, 400,000 Canadians used these cards to identify   
   themselves. Another 120,171 had someone, usually a neighbour or relative,   
   vouch for their identity.   
      
   Experts warned that Poilievre’s plans would make it harder to vote.    
   Citizens rallied and opposition MPs filibustered, but Poilievre, a talking   
   point in a tailored suit, would hear none of it.   He insisted the changes   
   were necessary because of the the    
   threat of voter fraud.   
      
   To make his case, he repeatedly cited a report by Harry Neufeld, the expert   
   Elections Canada hired to figure out what went wrong in the Toronto-area   
   riding of Etobicoke Centre in 2011, when Conservative Ted Opitz beat Liberal   
   Borys Wrzesnewskyj by just    
   26 votes.   
      
   Wrzesnewskyj, who is determined and rich, challenged the result, presenting   
   evidence that at least 79 dodgy ballots were counted.  He won at Ontario   
   Superior Court, but the Supreme Court ruled against him, since there was no   
   evidence of fraud.   
      
   Elections Canada asked Neufeld to look for similar problems across Canada.  He   
   found “serious administrative errors,” mostly forms filled out incorrectly   
   by hastily trained workers handling election-day registrations for people with   
   ID issues.   
      
   Neufeld recommended that Elections Canada simplify the paperwork and use the   
   Voter Information Cards more widely.   
      
   Instead of taking that advice, Poilievre banned the use of the Voter   
   Information Card as ID and made vouching harder.     (¬‿¬)凸   
      
   Neufeld is not impressed.   
      
   The veteran elections expert has filed an affidavit in a case to be heard in   
   Ontario Superior Court in Toronto on July 2, when the Council of Canadians   
   will ask a judge for an injunction to allow the fall election to proceed using   
   voter cards and    
   vouching under the old rules.   
      
   Neufeld makes a compelling case.   
      
   “It can be anticipated that many tens of thousands of otherwise fully   
   qualified voters will simply be unable to meet the new attestati   
   n-of-residence requirements,” he writes.   
      
   The new rules will be most difficult for those who often don’t have ID with   
   their addresses: “students, First Nations living on reserves and seniors   
   living in long-term care facilities.”   
      
   And Neufeld contradicts what he obviously expects to be the government’s   
   counter argument: that the changes are necessary to prevent fraud.   
      
   “During my 33 years of election administration … my observation is that   
   voting fraud which involves persons deciding to impersonate someone else, or   
   find some other creative way to vote more than once, is extremely rare in this   
   country,” he writes.   
      
   This time there will be none of that, thanks to the Fair Elections Act passed   
   by the Conservative government last year.   
      
   If you see lines of angry, confused people at your polling station on Oct. 19,   
   you can thank Pierre Poilievre, minister of democratic reform.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)