Court set to rule on constitutional challenge to new voter ID rules

TORONTO – An Ontario judge rules today on a challenge to the Conservative government’s new voter identification rules.

The Council of Canadians, Canadian Federation of Students, and three voters maintain the rules are unconstitutional.

They argue thousands of people could be disenfranchised if parts of the Fair Elections Act stand.

The government says the changes are needed to prevent voter fraud.

A key issue is whether people should be able to use voter information cards as ID at the polls.

The two sides presented their case to Superior Court Justice David Stinson earlier this month.

“This case is about the right to vote — the cornerstone of democracy,” lawyer Steven Shrybman told Stinson.

He argued the rules would cause “irreparable harm” to the democratic system by undermining the right to vote for tens of thousands of Canadians — mostly students, aboriginals, seniors and the homeless.

In the 2011 election, as many as 400,000 people used their voter-information cards as official ID on election day. The cards are one of the few forms of readily available ID that have an elector’s address.

However, the government stripped Canada’s chief electoral officer of the right to recognize the cards as a valid form of ID to tackle what it calls abuse of the system.

Government lawyer Christine Mohr told the court that ineligible voters could cast a ballot using the cards and questioned whether many people would be affected by the change.

There are 45 acceptable forms of ID, Mohr said.

The applicants maintain the fraud the government says is a problem is really a manufactured crisis.