Bill C-50

SUMMARY

This enactment amends the Canada Elections Act to

(a) eliminate the international register of electors and incorporate all of the information contained in it into the Register of Electors;

(b) require electors who are resident outside Canada to make an application for registration and special ballot after the issue of the writs at each election;

(c) stipulate that electors who are resident outside Canada may only receive a special ballot for the address at which they last resided in Canada;

(d) require that electors who are applying for a special ballot under Division 3 or 4 of Part 11 include in their application for registration and special ballot proof of identity and residence and, if they apply from outside Canada, proof of Canadian citizenship;

(e) require that an external auditor perform an audit and report on election workers’ compliance with special ballot voting procedures and requirements for every election;

(f) authorize the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to provide the Chief Electoral Officer with information for the purpose of assisting the Chief Electoral Officer to, among other things, delete from the Register of Electors the names of persons who are not Canadian citizens; and

(g) add the offence of voting or attempting to vote by special ballot under Division 3 or 4 of Part 11 while knowing that one is not qualified as an elector and add offences under those Divisions of attesting to the residence of more than one elector and of acting as an attestor when one’s own residence has already been attested to.