A Canadian friend of mine was absolutely flabbergasted that we didn't have to show ID to vote until recently.
Electoral officer in Canada here.
I occupied a lot of positions in all levels of elections (federal, provincial, municipal and school board) in Québec and Ontario.
Until about 2002, it was prohibited by law for any electoral officer to demand any ID. People would spontenaously present IDs, and we had to turn them down (in case there was any doubt, the most that could have been demanded is that an elector swear an oath).
In 1995, for the upcoming Québec secession referendum, it was discovered that 300,000 electors had no entries in the Québec health insurance records, which meant that they did not live in Québec. This was traced to the
Committee to Register Voters Outside Québec.
Then, in 1998, the Québec liberal party* was caught red-handed buying votes for $10, and they could not oppose any ID requirement as they always did before. So Québec changed it’s electoral law to make voter identification compulsory.
And around 1994, Canada changed it’s electoral law to do so, too (Canada always follows Québec when it comes to progressive measures).
Voter ID requirements have done a lot to curb electoral fraud; I fail to understand what the hoopla is in the US…
* Do not be misled by the name; they are in reality a pro-business conservative party; it was just the absence of an actual conservative party in Québec since the 1920’s that had caused the liberal party to drift into the conservative party ecological† political niche.
† Ugh. «Ecology»! What a disgusting anti-american, business-hating, freedom-hating commie word!!!
