Citizens deserve fair elections

Voter suppression by both Republican-controlled states and Donald Trump in the upcoming American election is dominating the news cycle.

The theory is, by making it difficult to vote, only your own committed supporters will bother. Democratic Party supporters, such as first time voters, those who have physical issues getting to the polls, and those who cannot miss time from their job will find it too problematic to vote. While U.S. citizens fight to make their vote count, many Canadians do not bother to vote.

The voter participation in our most recent elections were Penticton federally 68%, provincially 57.73% and only 43% in the last Summerland municipal election.

Some people feel municipal elections are the most important, as councils will decide many pocketbook issues such as property tax and utility rates. Council will also decide how to spend your tax dollars in ways which affect your daily life, such as building solar arrays instead of much needed paving the roads.

In reality, the most important election is the nomination of local party candidates. Usually party candidates are elected by fewer than 200 members. The cost of joining a party is less than $25 (youth memberships may be free) and you may influence who will be your next MP or MLA.

Joining a party does not obligate one to participate at any level and you still get to vote. Some party memberships give you the vote for both provincial and federal nominees.

Unlike the U.S., Canadian elections are conducted without the interference of political parties. We rely on the impartiality of Elections Canada, Elections BC and a midlevel unelected staffer in municipal elections. In the upcoming American presidential election, the logistics of voting are controlled by the state. This gives whatever party is in power in a given state the ability to rig the election in their favour. In Canada, one is either automatically registered to vote (selectable on your tax return) or one can even register at the polling station on Election Day.

Republican-controlled states are making voting difficult in counties likely to vote Democrat, usually with a majority AfricanAmerican, Latino or Aboriginal. Rules such as exact match ID (voter registration has to match exactly with motor vehicle or social security records) eliminated 53,000 ballots in Georgia in 2018. Other tricks include eliminating polling stations, under-staffing on election days and too few ballot machines which added together result in hours-long lineups to vote. Mailing out absentee ballots at the last possible moment in order to make them late by return mail is used as well. In some states, people are punished for not voting by being removed from the registration without notice, only to find out when shut out on Election Day.

Voter suppression in Canada is rare. There was the instance in the 2011 federal election. Robocalls directed voters to the wrong polling stations. A lowly Conservative party staffer in Guelph was convicted of a breach of the Elections Act. Unfortunately, other robocalls went unpunished.

We are not immune to legislated suppression in Canada. Stephen Harper’s 2014 “Fair Elections Act” is the prime example. It disallowed the use of the Voter Identification

Card qualified citizens receive from

Elections Canada as valid documentation at the poll. (Statistics Canada said 172,000 Canadians did not vote in the 2015 federal election as they believed they could not produce adequate identification.) On a larger scale, Harper directed Elections Canada to stop encouraging voting through educational programs. The Harper government tried to get rid of the convention whereby one qualified elector at a polling station can vouch for the residence and identity of another who may be lacking ID.

Harper took away the power of the Chief Electoral Officer, the power to promote voting through educational programs aimed at everyone. Later, Bill C33 reversed the worst of Harper’s “Fair Elections Act.”

We are still waiting for the “last first-past the-post election” which Justin Trudeau over-promised.

There are minority governments both federally and provincially. An election could happen at any time.

Voters have many reasons for not participating in elections. If you do not vote, please go to your local cenotaph and tell the ghost of a soldier who spent four years fighting in the mud in Flanders, you do not have time to vote.

Tell the ghost of a Battle of Britain airman, your vote does not really matter. Tell the ghost of a navy seaman you do not understand the issues.

Thousands died for your right to vote — use it!

John Dorn is a retired tech entrepreneur who resides in Summerland.