<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div><span>Hi Mike,</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span>I'm not sure that this new provision would affect homeless people the way it's being described.</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0,
0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;">There are two different processes here - one for people who are homeless or without ID that ties them to an address and another for people who live in a particular poll but don't have any of the ID that is on the list of acceptable forms. I have worked in numerous elections as a supervisor of poll staff for both Elections Canada and Elections Ontario.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;">If Mary lives at 123 Main Street but
doesn't have a drivers licence, passport, etc and can't prove both who she is AND that she lives there, the current system allows Sam who lives at 127 Main Street to swear that he knows her and knows that she lives there. You can only vouch for a person who lives in the same poll as you and you can't vouch for more than one voter.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;">For the last four elections, I've overseen polls in Sandy Hill and, when the election is in October, there are dozens of students that have submitted a change of address but haven't received their new ID. They often live with
room-mates and the hydro bill is in the roomie's name or they haven't received it yet. If the room-mate has valid ID, they could vouch for the other person. Those are the people that will be affected by the removal of vouching.</div><div></div><div><br></div><div>The other group is people who are a) homeless and therefore have no address that connects them to a particular polling place or b) have no ID that has the required info on it. For this group, the process is that they can go to an agency where they are known such as a soup kitchen, drop-in centre or shelter and a designated staff person there fills out a form that they bring with them to the polling station and use as ID to vote. I tried to find the legislation to verify it and couldn't but my understanding of what I have read is that this isn't on the line. I will check further to clarify this. </div><div><br></div><div>The government is saying that people will still have 39 kinds of ID
that they can use to vote and the agency letter is treated as ID when you bring it to a polling station. Also, if it was vouching, then both the voter and the person who vouches for them would have to be present in person at the polling station at the same time. That's not the case with the agency letter - we have, at every polling place, a copy of the signature of the designated person in each agency that we compare with the form a voter presents.</div><div><br></div><div>Vouching is a throwback to the time when there was a door-to-door enumeration done before every election and people were sometimes missed. Rather than having them go to wherever the Returning Office was, they could have a neighbour vouch for them. There were also not as many advance polls or polling stations. While it was used in the city, its main uptake was in rural communities. Lots of people, particularly women, would not have had government-issued ID so vouching was a way around
that.</div><div><br></div><div>Linda. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span style="color: rgb(24, 24, 24); font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." Dr Seuss.</span><br></div> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Mike Bulthuis <mike@endhomelessnessottawa.ca><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> homeles_ot-l@list.web.net <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, February 5, 2014 3:15:03 PM<br> <b><span
style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [homeles_ot-l] "Fair Elections Act" and implications for voters without identification<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br><div id="yiv5621709045"><style><!--
#yiv5621709045
_filtered #yiv5621709045 {font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
_filtered #yiv5621709045 {font-family:Consolas;panose-1:2 11 6 9 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
#yiv5621709045
#yiv5621709045 p.yiv5621709045MsoNormal, #yiv5621709045 li.yiv5621709045MsoNormal, #yiv5621709045 div.yiv5621709045MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", "sans-serif";}
#yiv5621709045 h1
{margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman", "serif";font-weight:bold;}
#yiv5621709045 a:link, #yiv5621709045 span.yiv5621709045MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}
#yiv5621709045 a:visited, #yiv5621709045 span.yiv5621709045MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;text-decoration:underline;}
#yiv5621709045 p.yiv5621709045MsoPlainText, #yiv5621709045 li.yiv5621709045MsoPlainText, #yiv5621709045 div.yiv5621709045MsoPlainText
{margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial", "sans-serif";}
#yiv5621709045 p
{margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:19.5pt;margin-left:0cm;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman", "serif";}
#yiv5621709045 span.yiv5621709045EmailStyle17
{font-family:"Arial", "sans-serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none none;}
#yiv5621709045 span.yiv5621709045Heading1Char
{font-family:"Times New Roman", "serif";font-weight:bold;}
#yiv5621709045 span.yiv5621709045sep
{}
#yiv5621709045 span.yiv5621709045by-author2
{}
#yiv5621709045 span.yiv5621709045author
{}
#yiv5621709045 span.yiv5621709045PlainTextChar
{font-family:"Arial", "sans-serif";}
#yiv5621709045 .yiv5621709045MsoChpDefault
{font-family:"Calibri", "sans-serif";}
_filtered #yiv5621709045 {margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}
#yiv5621709045 div.yiv5621709045WordSection1
{}
--></style><div><div class="yiv5621709045WordSection1"><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText">FYI: As identified in this morning’s <i>Ottawa Citizen</i> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/editorials/Conservatives+Elections+Canada/9467629/story.html">editorial</a>, there are concerns that the proposed federal “Fair Elections Act” will have a limiting effect on the ability of persons who are homeless (or otherwise without government-issued identification) to vote. For more, I’m sharing a Press Release from our community partners at the London Homeless Coalition. </div><div style="border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm;"><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText" style="border:none;padding:0cm;"> </div></div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText"> </div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText"><b>‘Fair Elections Act’ Press Release</b></div><div
class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText">London Homeless Coalition, February 4, 2014</div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText">‘Fair Elections Act’ Will Disenfranchise Those Experiencing Homelessness</div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText"> </div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText">Today the Conservative Government introduced the ‘Fair Elections Act’ which provides for a number of electoral reforms. The London Homeless Coalition is extremely concerned regarding the elimination of the ‘vouching’ process whereby a registered voter could vouch for another who lacks government issued identification. Unfortunately, many who experience homelessness are victims of theft or misplaced personal effects and find themselves without identification. Those who deliver street level services put significant energies into vouching for their homeless clients during elections to ensure that the electoral process is open to all
Canadians. It is the opinion of the London Homeless Coalition that this new Act will mean that many who have the right to vote as Canadian citizens will not be afforded the opportunity to do so, and that this disenfranchisement will fall disproportionately on those experiencing homelessness. We urge the Conservative Government to reconsider this provision in the Act.</div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText"> </div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://londonhomeless.ca/fair-elections-act-press-release/">http://londonhomeless.ca/fair-elections-act-press-release/</a></div><div style="border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm;"><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText" style="border:none;padding:0cm;"> </div></div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText"> </div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText"> </div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText">
</div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText"> </div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText">Mike Bulthuis</div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText">Executive Director</div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText">Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa</div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText">171 George Street, Ottawa ON K1N 5W5</div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText">613-241-1573, ext. 314</div><div class="yiv5621709045MsoPlainText"> </div></div></div></div><br>PLEASE ADD OUR ADDRESS,<br><a ymailto="mailto:homeles_ot-l@list.web.net" href="mailto:homeles_ot-l@list.web.net">homeles_ot-l@list.web.net</a><br>to your email contact list.<br><br>THEN email your homelessness and housing messages to that address to reach the full list or to reply to a posting.<br><br>This list is not moderated; there is no editorial review.<br><br>Please try to keep messages to 200KB or less, including attachments, so that all subscribers are able to receive
them.<br><br>The listserv does not permit Blind copy, BCC addresses or the use of too many Send To addresses. The best thing is to email to this list on its own.<br><br>The Alliance to End Homelessness does not verify the accuracy of submitted messages nor necessarily endorse the opinions expressed by message authors. Message authors are solely responsible for content of their messages.<br><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div></body></html>