Media lines on Voter Qualification/Potential Non-Citizens on the NRoE – CEO Appearance: Supplementary Estimates (B) 2019-20

Subject

National Register of Electors / 2019 Voter Qualification / Potential Non-citizens on the Register

Date

February 17, 2020

Issue

Potential non-citizens on the National Register of Electors / Suspected cases of non-citizens voting

Key messages

In Canada, a national ID card or a universally held document for Canadian citizens does not exist. There is also no pre-existing list of Canadian citizens that Elections Canada could cross-reference its data with.
The Canada Elections Act does not require electors to provide proof of citizenship to register or vote, similarly to countries such as US, NZ and UK. It instead relies on legal declarations that are backed up by penalties for falsely stating one’s qualification to vote.
A citizenship declaration has been made, at one point or other, for all individuals registered in the National Register of Electors.
Elections Canada is conducting a thorough review to identify any potential violations of the Canada Elections Act, including instances of possible non-citizens voting at the 2019 federal election.
Based on this initial assessment, Elections Canada has no evidence to suggest that the outcomes in any ridings would have been affected by instances of non-citizens voting in the 2019 federal election.
If evidence is found of a possible offence under the Canada Elections Act, the case will be referred to the Commissioner of Canada Elections (CCE).

Background

Elections Canada continually updates the National Register of Electors, a permanent database of Canadians who are qualified to vote in federal general elections, by-elections and referendums. Elections Canada uses the information in this Register to create lists of electors (voters lists) during federal general elections, by-elections and referendums. To vote in a federal election, an elector must first be registered. They can register either online or by paper form, or at the polls, and must confirm that they:

will be 18 or older on election day
have Canadian Citizenship

As a part of its ongoing efforts to ensure the National Register of Electors is as accurate as possible, Elections Canada sends different types of letters, including:

verification letters, sent to electors who are on the Register, but whose records have not been updated over the years.
qualification letters, sent to identified potential non-citizens.
registration letters, sent to potential new eligible electors who are not registered.

Elections Canada’s work ahead of the 43rd general election

Ahead of the 2019 federal election, Elections Canada worked to ensure that only the names of Canadian citizens appeared on the Register. This was done by cross-referencing Elections Canada’s existing data sources with new data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
Most cases of non-citizens added to the Register occurred when information, including attestations of Canadian citizenship, was captured by one of Elections Canada’s data sources.
Using the data provided by IRCC for the first time in April 2019, Elections Canada initially identified approximately 103,000 potential non-citizens in the Register. This number subsequently increased to 112,000 following further analysis. Based on revised data provided by IRCC, the number was corrected again to 85,000.
In June 2019, Elections Canada sent voter qualification letters to those people whose names appeared in the Register and who had been identified in IRCC data as potential non-citizens, to ask them to confirm that they were Canadian citizens aged 18 or over. Following Elections Canada’s voter qualification mail-out, it became evident that some eligible voters had been mistakenly identified as potential non-citizens.
As a result, approximately 74,000 non-citizens were removed. Others have confirmed to Elections Canada that they were Canadian citizens.

Analysis process

Elections Canada’s review process starts with an examination of all the data collected during the election. This is a computerized exercise that casts a wide net around any “data anomalies” pointing to unqualified voting. It involves, among other things, comparing voters’ records with IRCC’s most recent lists of permanent residents and foreign nationals.
Elections Canada is then able, through a thorough paper trail system, to identify each potential case and reassemble all related documents linked to a particular file. Those steps are important to ensure all relevant information is reviewed.
Every potential case is unique and has its own paper trail. Each case must therefore be verified separately, following a rigorous tracking process to be applied when opening sealed poll bags containing election materials from the location where the individual voted. Only officials authorized by the Chief Electoral Officer may open the poll bags and handle election documents.
Copies of all supporting documentation gathered through this due diligence process are then transmitted to Elections Canada’s Electoral Integrity Office for further verification before being sent to the CCE. For legal purposes, all documents are replaced in their original location in the file, without exception, before re-sealing the poll bag.
Identified potential cases are then sent to the CCE and investigated independently from Elections Canada.
The timeframe required to complete this process is undefined, as it depends on the nature and amount of verifications to be done in each case.
As the work is ongoing, Elections Canada cannot speak to the number of cases that may be referred to the CCE.

About the National Register of Electors

Elections Canada continually updates the Register, using more than 40 data sources, and steps up its efforts in preparation for elections to ensure the voters lists are accurate and complete.
The effort to maintain the Register presents a complex challenge. The Register constantly changes along with the Canadian population. EC manages 500 million records every year. Among 27.2 million eligible electors, each year some 2.9 million Canadians move, 100,000 become citizens, 400,000 turn 18, and 300,000 pass away.
Elections Canada continuously looks for ways to increase the Register’s accuracy.
Elections Canada strives to keep the information in the Register accurate and up-to-date, and takes precautions to ensure it is kept secure and used for authorized purposes only.

Requirement to have Canadian Citizenship to vote

It is illegal under the Canada Elections Act for a non-citizen to vote, or to apply to register to vote, knowing they are not qualified to do so. It is also illegal for a person to request the addition of another person to the Register knowing that the other person is not qualified as an elector.

To ensure that people understand the legal requirements to register and vote, Elections Canada outlines the eligibility criteria in several places. For example:

Different types of letters mailed periodically to potential electors, current electors and potential non-citizens
Voter registration request forms
The Voter Information Card, mailed to registered electors three weeks before election day
The reminder brochure, mailed to every household in the country two weeks before election day
A poster in every voting place
Elections Canada’s website, including our Online Voter Registration Service
Other Elections Canada information products and outreach activities, such as pamphlets and presentations

Allowing the sharing of non-citizen data by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)

There is no pre-existing list of Canadian citizens that Elections Canada could cross-reference its data with, nor is there the equivalent of a citizenship card used by all Canadians.

Elections Canada had been asking for data from IRCC for nearly a decade, but lacked the legislative authority to get it.

Following the 42^nd general election, in 2015, the Chief Electoral Officer recommended to Parliament to grant authority to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to share data about non-citizens (permanent residents and foreign nationals) with Elections Canada to improve the accuracy of the information contained in the National Register of Electors.

This recommendation was integrated as one of the measures in Bill C-76, known as the Elections Modernization Act, that received Royal Assent on December 13, 2018 and was brought into force on January 19, 2019. The Chief Electoral Officer brought this new provision into force early to allow time for Elections Canada to receive and analyze this information and remove any potential non-citizens from the Register in time for the 43^rd general election, in 2019.

Having this non-citizen data allows Elections Canada to identify and remove these individuals from the Register on an ongoing basis. Elections Canada can also compare the IRCC data with data from other sources to confirm the accuracy of the entries in the Register.

References

Most recently verified (date): 17-02-2020
Next updated scheduled for (date):
Originally approved (date): 28-05-2019
Updated (date/s): 17-02-2020

Prepared by:	Karo Séguin, Senior Communications Advisor, Policy and Public Affairs Emilie Jadot, Communications Officer, Policy and Public Affairs
In consultation with:	Nick Gamache, Senior Advisor, Media Relations and Issues Management Daniel Larrivée, Director, Data Analysis and Quality Duncan Toswell, Senior Director, Electoral Data Management and Readiness Jane Dunlop, Senior Director, Electoral Integrity and Internal Audit Robert Sampson, Counsel, Legal Services
For approval by:	Michel Roussel, DCEO, Electoral Events and Innovation Susan Torosian, Executive Director, Policy and Public Affairs Anne Lawson, DCEO, Regulatory Affairs Stéphane Perrault, Chief Electoral Officer

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