Following the April 9, 2013 Council Meeting where Council discussed the idea of passing a bylaw expanding the Identification that residents could bring in order to vote in a municipal election Administration has gathered information to present to Council.
1. Voters List - Administration can obtain the Provincial voters list for Provincial elections. However this list is at least one year old, and it is not made according to our County boundaries, therefore would require significant work in order for it to be correct for municipal election purposes. Additionally, a voters list is only current as of the day that is complete. Our taxation department has approximately 1200 land title changes each year - they can have in excess of 40 changes every two weeks.
2. Bylaw specifying identification required other than that required in the Local Authorities Elections Act. In discussions with Administrative staff, we have determined that only a utility bill or a residents' tax notice with their rural address on it (the tax notice for the home quarter) would provide unequivocal evidence that they are a resident and eligible to vote. In a rural municipality it is difficult to determine residency from a person's drivers license or other photo ID as in most cases rural residents will have a Box number and pick up their mail in an urban center - that in some cases is not even within the rural municipality's border. Administration has sent out emails to the AAMDC Zone 5 municipalities - we have received several responses back from these municipalities - only Strathcona County that I am aware of in our zone has passed a bylaw. Also County of Wetaskiwin has passed a bylaw. No one is doing a voters list.
Administration has drafted a bylaw that requires the voter to bring along either a utility bill or tax notice with their rural address on it as well as photo ID required by the Act. The pros - this will actually determine whether or not the resident is eligible to vote. The cons - we will likely have less people coming out to vote, and those that do may not show up with the required information in order to allow them to vote. Passing a bylaw will require significant advertising so that residents show up with the required documents to vote. Voters will still need to fill out Form 8 - the voter eligibility form in order to vote where they declare that they live in the voting division.