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How many times will you vote on October 2nd? As the election winds down to a predictable close, many writers are complaining that there is nothing to write about. Freedom Party of Ontario Leader Paul McKeever is suggesting the time is right to write about Ontario's absurd, fraud-prone voting system. The Political Party Advisory Committee, which meets every few months with Chief Electoral Officer John Hollins and his staff, includes up to two representatives from each of Ontario's registered political parties. "I've been a member of Election Ontario's Political Party Advisory Committee since it was set up", says Freedom Party of Ontario leader, Paul McKeever. "At meetings of the committee, certain astonishing facts have been made clear." "First," says McKeever, "it is easy for anyone to vote in any riding, on polling day, without having a scrap of identification. All one need do is attend the returning officer's office and claim one is eligible to vote. A declaration must be signed by the person wanting to vote, but the fact of the person's eligibility will never be checked. The declaration will be filed and never looked at again unless there is a complaint. There is never a complaint, because it is nearly impossible for those who would take the time to complain to know that such a vote has occurred, and who it was that voted. "Another alternative is pretending to be a person who is on the voter list but who is, in fact, dead: no ID required and no proof of residency or eligibility required, and there are many thousands of dead people on the voter list. Another is to vote for one or more people who you know will not vote: no ID required, and no proof of residency or eligibility required. This is bloody absurd." "Second," says McKeever "at those meetings, Elections Ontario has said it is happy to say that it has never had a single case of voter fraud. When it is pointed out that you cannot catch fraud if you do not look for it, the response is simply that we have an 'honour system'. But consider that:
"Third, and most disturbing", says McKeever "at meetings of the Political Party Advisory Committee, the NDP, Liberals and PCs all strongly oppose the idea of a voter card. They cite privacy as the reason, but cannot explain what sort of information would be revealed that is not already known by the government about people who are eligible to vote. The whole thing smells." "The bottom line is this" says McKeever. "We are talking here about a franchise that took hundreds of years of political struggle to acquire. It is neither necessary nor acceptable that we should allow voting on the basis of an easily defrauded honour system. Not everyone in Ontario is eligible to vote and not everyone is honourable. Those who are eligible have a right to know that their decisions are not being undermined by voter fraud or mistake. They deserve better than a defraudable honour system. Freedom Party is the only party proposing that every eligible voter's eligibility be evidenced by a voter card, and that no ballot be issued to a person who does not present that card at the polls." The Freedom Party is Ontario's remaining party of common sense. Its election platform, The Right Direction, can be found at: https://freedomparty.on.ca/platform.pdf (Adobe .pdf format) https://freedomparty.on.ca/platform/html/cover.htm (HTML format) Paul McKeever (who will be running in the riding of Oshawa, against Sid Ryan and Jerry Ouellette) is available to discuss this matter. You can contact him directly at: ***-***-**** (cell) Freedom Party is expected to run candidates in approximately half of Ontario's ridings in the coming election. For
further information: Paul McKeever, Leader, Freedom Party of Ontario.
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Freedom
Party of Ontario |