Second-year Carleton University masters student Sara Anderson had to check twice to make sure she had the right identification to be able to vote in the upcoming federal election.
“I haven’t changed my official address,” Anderson said, “so my driver’s licence, my health card, [and] my passport, all of the ones that would normally have some sort of address, they’re still from my hometown because I’m a student, I’m not living in Ottawa permanently, [and] I’m also not living on the university campus.”
Going to the polls in 2015 will be different from 2011. Some students may have trouble voting. The Fair Elections Act (FEA) changes several voting rules, as well as the mandate of Elections Canada. Passed in 2014 with the intention of combating voter fraud, critics say the new law will disenfranchise students, among other groups.
Voters will have to pay attention to new rules, said Joan O’Neill, field liaison officer for Elections Canada.
“We certainly have noticed that there seems to be a heightened interest by students in voting for this election,” O’Neill said, “and we certainly want to encourage the young people to exercise their democratic right, and get to the polls and cast their ballot.”
Two changes brought in by the FEA can directly affect students.
Voters must now bring with them a piece of ID that has a current address inside the riding in which they want to vote. Previously, a piece of ID that proves a voter’s name was only required. In addition, the Voter Information Card (VIC) mailed to all registered voters, will no longer be accepted as ID as it was in 2011.
The practice of vouching previously allowed voters to have a person with proper identification vouch for the identity of another at a polling station. The Conservative government tried to ban the practice entirely, but eventually settled on allowing a voter with proper ID to vouch for only one person who has valied name ID.
“[It] may make it a little difficult for some people [to vote] if they don’t have proper identification with them at the polls,” O’Neill said.
In 2011, VICs were accepted from students, First Nations voters, and senior citizens living in retirement homes. Voters using their VIC also had to produce name identification to supplement it.
Bilan Arte, the national chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), said she thinks the FEA will “discourage and limit” student voter turnout.
For example, she said often groups of students sharing a house will have the name of only one roommate on utility bills. The student with appropriate ID would only be allowed to vouch for one of their roommates, she said.
Last July, the CFS and the Council of Canadians, an advocacy group, issued a charter challenge in July against the FEA. The Ontario Superior Court declined their injunction.
In 2011, 38.8 per cent of Canadians age 18-24 voted in the federal election.
Steve White, a Carleton political science professor, said most Canadians will likely have the proper ID to vote, but the new requirements are significant for disadvantaged voting groups.
“It’s not just about possibility of disenfranchisement,” White said. “It’s also about imposing costs in terms of time and effort on some voters that are heavier than they are for others.”
“[It’s] a form of inequality if a student, for instance, has gone through far greater effort to try to figure out or find some form of identification they can use to go and vote,” he said. “That’s problematic.”
White also said the FEA might make voting more difficult for other marginalized groups, including the homeless.
Anderson, who is of part Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal heritage, said Aboriginal people living on rural reserves may not be able to vote since many do not have an official address and live under one post office box.
“There may even be a disincentive, it might be a deterrent for a lot of Indigenous voters who might have been interested in voting,” she said. “There are a lot of Indigenous people in Canada who don’t feel that they are Canadian citizens—that they belong to their First Nation, or their nation—and so there’s a lot of question about why would they vote. It doesn’t feel like their country.”
Carleton business professor Ian Lee said the argument that some Canadians can’t obtain ID doesn’t hold water.
“You can’t function in a modern society without ID,” Lee said. “If they’re saying there’s people out there that can’t vote, what they’re saying is there’s people out there that can’t access the health care system, that can’t access the banking system, financial system, that can’t access the universities.”
“What they’re really saying is you’ve got people who are completely excluded from the totality of our modern society,” Lee added. “I don’t believe it.”
“There are other aspects of electoral legislation that also affect students. For example, the fixed election date,” said Jon Pammett, a political science professor at Carleton.
Pammett mentioned an aspect of the FEA that could affect student voting down the road.
“[The FEA] makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to bring in electronic voting,” Pammett said. “Students could easily, in an electronic voting system, vote online in their home constituencies.”
Pammett said for some younger Canadians and in particular, students, voting is a “more marginal activity.”
“The more road blocks that are put in the way, the less likely people will take the time to either become registered or to vote,” he said.
The first few years Canadians are eligible to vote mark a critical period for making it a habit, according to O’Neill.
“Statistically, [studies] find that if people don’t start voting at a young age closer to the age of 18 when they’re allowed to vote they tend not to continue to vote,” O’Neill said. “They don’t pick it up at a later age and all of a sudden start to vote.”
