Only days after Elections Canada bragged that Canada’s election system was immune to the problems that plagued the US election, a new report indicates otherwise.
According to a Survey of Election Officers report, approximately 35% of election officers in 2019 reported voters whose names were not in the National Register of Elections.
“35% of poll staff said they sometimes or often encountered individuals asking to vote who were not on the list of electors and who were unable to be registered at the polling station,” claimed the report.
“Approximately four in ten (39%) noticed electors whose address did not match the list of electors, while nearly identical proportions noticed electors who had improper ID.”
The report indicates 27% of poll officers encountered voters who couldn’t prove their address, and another 14% reported coming across voters who could not prove their identification.
Meanwhile, 6% reported attempts of voter fraud in the 2019 election.
Shortly after the hotly contested 2020 US election, Elections Canada officials boasted in the media about how Canada’s elections were immune to the problems encountered down south.
“Having an agency that is independent from the elected government, with a chief electoral officer who is appointed by Parliament as a whole, we are nonpartisan in everything that we do,” said Elections Canada spokesperson Natasha Gauthier.
“We are removed from that politicization of the voting system that we see in the U.S.”
Gauthier went on to praise how Canada’s uniform federal ballot process has led to smoother elections.
“The way people vote, the ways to vote, how they are informed to vote, where they can vote, registration, the types of IDs that are acceptable at the polling locations — those are all prescribed by law,” Gauthier said.
“So someone voting in Iqaluit will have the same experience at the polling booth as someone voting in downtown Toronto or Vancouver.”
US President Donald Trump has alleged that the 2020 election results were impacted by voter fraud after his competitor former vice president Joe Biden was declared the victor. Currently, the Trump campaign has filed a number of lawsuits in crucial states, including Michigan, where fraud is alleged to have taken place.
