As election looms, even offering a ride to the polls could be illegal

Crackdown on freebies for voters may seem heavy-handed, but strict laws have their place

David Marskell had fun this week with the Municipal Elections Act.

How could it be illegal to offer free admission to a cultural attraction to people who vote?

Marskell is chief executive officer of TheMuseum in downtown Kitchener, and was offering free entry on Wednesday to anyone who said they’d voted on Monday, which is municipal election day.

He had meant it as a way to encourage voter participation.

But entry to the facility on Wednesdays is $7. To let people who voted in for free is offering them a “valuable consideration” in the words of the law. It’s illegal to give or offer anything of value if they vote, or don’t vote.

“While I applaud your creative effort at trying to encourage eligible electors to vote, you’ve unfortunately contravened the Municipal Elections Act,” Kitchener city clerk Christine Tarling informed Marskell by email this week.

Marskell suggested that the Municipal Elections Act must be as old as Prohibition, and needs a rewrite.

And, with tongue firmly in cheek, he reiterated his offer of free admission next Wednesday. But instead of saying you voted, you have to give the password, “Please Vote.”

It was a fuss about nothing, but at the same time it revealed a sharp kernel of truth.

After Marskell hung up, I started wondering, What about those time-honoured rides to the polls?

In every election, whether federal, provincial or municipal, candidates identify voters who seem friendly to them.

They make sure those voters get to the polls on election day. To do this, volunteers offer the voter a ride, often in their own car.

It’s called “getting out the vote.” Everyone does it.

And as it turns out, that too “could be construed” as illegal, says Olga Smith, the director of legislative services for the City of Waterloo.

She agreed with me that a ride in a campaign volunteer’s car has a value to it, since you’d have to pay cab or bus fare, or spend money on gas, to get there yourself.

Smith, of course, has bigger fish to fry right now.

She has contacted police and has the city solicitor involved in an investigation of the “Student Vote Movement” which is offering $2 drinks and free T-shirts to students who march to the polls together to vote.

This is expected to happen in uptown Waterloo’s hotly contested Ward 7.

It has been a cause for concern that one of the venues where students are expected to gather is the parking lot of a bar called Becky’s Apartment, which is owned by one of the candidates, Devon McKenzie.

The website promoting this has been shut down, but appears to have been operated by XL Lifestyle, a Toronto-based event management company that organizes pub crawls and St. Patrick’s Day parties, including in Waterloo.

McKenzie said he didn’t organize the voting scheme other than agree to have his parking lot used as a gathering space.

XL Lifestyle has not returned my requests for comment.

Nevertheless, serious questions remain — and should be answered — about who, exactly, is involved in a plan to give away T-shirts and serve impossibly cheap drinks to students if they vote.

It’s a reminder that, even though a law may seem fussy and micromanaging in one instance, those very strict rules are there for us when we need to deal with another scenario that could be far more problematic.