How to win votes and alienate people

Impolitical reminds us today of the silliness that Harper engaged in over veiled voters. What this reminded me of was how it occurred to me that I could have easily committed electoral fraud this last election (note to law enforcement types: this is strictly hypothetical and in no way tested or endorsed by me). I moved between elections, something I suspect that thousands of voters do. The way voters lists are done now means that I would have still been on the list in my old riding, being a lazy git, I didn't make any move to add myself to the voters list in my new riding till the day of the election. I could have voted in my old riding (my name surely would have been on the list) and as far as I can tell, showed up at my new riding and done likewise. How did I prove my address? My cable bill. Yes, that's right, it was the only thing I had at the time that had my new address.

Now, again I'm not an expert, but I suspect that it would be cheaper to run off a bunch of cable bills with local addresses or something than it would be to invest in all kinds of niqabs. Electoral fraud is of course a Very Bad Thing if you agree with democracy and/or the rule of law, but my goodness, the idea that veils would be the only tool for it is, well, a bit silly. Anyone who wants to commit electoral fraud can probably do so (though I suspect the penalties if you are caught are unpleasant) without any kind of veil. But then you don't get many votes with those who bellow about Islamofascism, do you?