American votes in Canadian elections

[I think not]

U of T student conducts `test'

Casts ballot in Trinity-Spadina
Jan. 25, 2006. 01:00 AM
LESLIE FERENC
STAFF REPORTER

An American student and budding journalist who wanted to expose flaws in Canada's voter registration system says he can't believe how easy it was to register and vote Monday.

Peter Cunningham, 21, is from Michigan and studying at the University of Toronto on a student visa. While volunteering at a downtown polling station during the campaign, he said, he was shocked to learn proof of citizenship wasn't required for electors whose names were not on the voters list. He said he decided to conduct an experiment and went to a polling station in Trinity-Spadina riding, where he lives. Since he wasn't on the voters list, Cunningham said he was asked to show identification bearing his name, signature and address. He said he presented officials his student card and a hydro bill before he was handed a ballot. According to Cunningham, he was never asked his age or whether he was a citizen.

"Simply put, the rules for registration are too lax," he wrote in a piece he sent to the Star hoping it would be published. "... Non-registered voters need not provide proof of their citizenship while those who are already registered can cast their votes without even providing election officials with ID," he continued. "They simply need to point to their name on a list and provide a signature. The potential for fraud is so immense that ignoring it would suggest nothing short of incompetence on the part of election officials."

Liberal incumbent Tony Ianno, who lost his seat in Trinity-Spadina, wouldn't comment. Newly elected New Democrat Olivia Chow could not be reached for comment.

Elections Canada spokesperson Nathalie De Montigny said it is illegal for anyone who is not a Canadian citizen to vote. "The law is the law. You have to be 18 years old as of election day and a Canadian citizen to vote.... "

Anyone providing false information could be charged and fined up to $5,000 or jailed for five years or both, De Montigny continued, adding she couldn't comment on the specific case.

Link

 

[DasFX]

U of T student conducts `test'

Casts ballot in Trinity-Spadina
Jan. 25, 2006. 01:00 AM
LESLIE FERENC
STAFF REPORTER

An American student and budding journalist who wanted to expose flaws in Canada's voter registration system says he can't believe how easy it was to register and vote Monday.

I worked as a deputy returning officer on Monday and it truely is a joke at how easy anyone can vote. If you are registered, all you need is your card and that is it. If you don't have your card, you just need to state your name, although I still asked for ID. As for citizenship, there is no safeguard against to ensure only Canadians vote.

Really anybody can vote, it is fairly easy to even vote multiple times if you really wanted to. We need to a government issued voter's card, and there must be strict enforcement at the polls. Elections Canada is too accomodating to people because they want people to vote that they cannot maintain the integrity of voting requirements.

 

[annabattler]

Come to think of it,I don't ever have any identification that shows I'm a Canadian citizen.
Most people don't carry their passport with them...so how exactly could one prove citizenship?

 

[I think not]

In New York State, while registering, you have to provide proof of citizenship, by way of birth certificate, naturalization documents or passport, otherwise you can't register to vote. On election day all you need is a drivers license.

 

[missile]

I carry my Social Insurance card,my Medicare card and my birth certificate with me always..and the previous election-was refused the right to vote because I didn't have enough proof for the asshole running the polling booth :evil: That was the first and only time in 40 years that I didn't exercise my voting rights.

 

[I think not]

Missile I don't understand, if you had previously voted, wouldn't you be registered already?

 

[tracy]

I voted as an absentee voter this year and it was the only time I had to prove citizenship.

 

[Canucks fan]

I registered at the polling station as well. It was incredibly easy to do so. I live on campus and that's where the polling station was. All I showed was my drivers license, and the key to my mailbox to proove where I live.

 

[zoofer]

As usual the pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction. It time to change direction.
When you become a Canadian citizen, either by choice or accident of birth, heh heh, then your social insurance number should be tattooed on your chest.
As a Registration Officer I would check at least 50% of the wanabe voters.

 

[Jay]

Re: RE: American votes in Canadian elections

As a Registration Officer I would check at least 50% of the wanabe voters.

Even me, Zoof?

 

[missile]

Missile I don't understand, if you had previously voted, wouldn't you be registered already?

I hadn't received the voter's card that time & was left off the list .

 

[zoofer]

Re: RE: American votes in Canadian elections

As a Registration Officer I would check at least 50% of the wanabe voters.

Even me, Zoof?

I was assuming half the voters were females. Now if you showed up in drag........ 8) :lol:

 

[Lotuslander]

An American student and budding journalist who wanted to expose flaws in Canada's voter registration system says he can't believe how easy it was to register and vote Monday.

Peter Cunningham, 21, is from Michigan and studying at the University of Toronto on a student visa. While volunteering at a downtown polling station during the campaign, he said, he was shocked to learn proof of citizenship wasn't required for electors whose names were not on the voters list. He said he decided to conduct an experiment and went to a polling station in Trinity-Spadina riding, where he lives. Since he wasn't on the voters list, Cunningham said he was asked to show identification bearing his name, signature and address. He said he presented officials his student card and a hydro bill before he was handed a ballot. According to Cunningham, he was never asked his age or whether he was a citizen.

"Simply put, the rules for registration are too lax," he wrote in a piece he sent to the Star hoping it would be published. "... Non-registered voters need not provide proof of their citizenship while those who are already registered can cast their votes without even providing election officials with ID," he continued. "They simply need to point to their name on a list and provide a signature. The potential for fraud is so immense that ignoring it would suggest nothing short of incompetence on the part of election officials."

When you go and register to vote you are asked to sign a document which states in the fine print that by signing you are eligible to cast a ballot. Therefore by signing you are declaring that you live in the address, are a Canadian citizen are over 18 years of age and have not voted previously in the election nor will vote for a second time at another polling station- you are making a legal declaration by signing. Unfortunately what this U of T student did was fraud. Anyway i don't know where this Yank gets off trying to tell us that our voter registration system is too lax. Perhaps it is but, at least we don't have the debacle of hanging chads. Or presidents elected by the recently deceased, which is how good ole LBJ won re-election in 64. Now that truly is a case of lax registration rules.

 

[jimmoyer]

Oh c'mon !!!

The fallacy of any of us is to think we're better than others !!!

Given many of the same circumstances, there but for the
grace of God go I.

Give it a break, Lotuslander, all election systems are not
bullet proof and perhaps you need somebody to point
that out in a painful way, because you got too used
to thinking you were better than your big gangly southern neighbor.

 

[FiveParadox]

I had to sign a document when I registered for this election (turned eighteen only four days before the Thirty-ninth Election, lol), and it said that I was declaring that I was a citizen, eighteen years old, would vote only once, et cetera, and that if I signed that thing that I would be bound to the information I gave under penalty of perjury.

Elections Canada should pursue this person and have him charged.

 

[jimmoyer]

Actually the Canadian electoral administrators should
thank this guy for doing THEIR JOB.

 

[FiveParadox]

If he cast a vote in our election, then he should not be thanked, but rather charged with electoral fraud. It is not the job of Elections Canada to cast fraudulent votes, is it?

It is the responsibility of whomsoever signs the registration paper, stating certain information, to ensure that such information is true — Elections Canada cannot be held liable for persons who would blatently lie.

 

[tawker]

RE: American votes in Can

Well, I heard of SEVERAL 17 and 16 year old Canadian citizens recieving voter registration cards this election. Some of them exercised their democratic right to vote. They *are* Canadian citizens after all.

If one refers to paragraph III of the Charter, their legal defense would be simply contained within the line

" 3. Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein."

If a judge would be able to state that those tax paying Canadian citzens were not Canadian citizens.

Non Canadians voting I have a problem with, but Canadian citizens, regardless of age, are no problem to me at all. If one can pay taxes, one can vote. Our friends to the south had a war over that simple point.

 

[jimmoyer]

Oh for gawd's sakes FiveParadox, you're too stiff about this.

Electoral administrators are notorious for not examining
the blind spots in their own procedures.

I've seen this everywhere. Haven't YOU ???

Give the guy a medal.

Appoint a group to follow up with recommendations
and close the gap.

 

[FiveParadox]

Whatever his intentions may have been, the fact remains that he committed a violation of federal law by voting where he was not authorized to do so.