Elections can be complicated. We make it easy to verify your address.

 

Elections can be a complicated thing.  You have to find your piece of photo identification and then find your proof of residence to prove you live in the riding and are allowed to vote there.

Now imagine you are a student.  Wait, you are students!  Well my trusty sidekicks, here’s how we’ve tried (are still trying) to help you vote in the upcoming election.

It’s the start of the school year.  Maybe you’ve moved back to Waterloo region after a summer at home.  Maybe you live with roommates and one of them has everything in their name?  Maybe any one of a hundred other things are in place to prevent you from voting (university mail goes somewhere else, you don’t have a credit card, etc.)  What can you do?

Well, we hope you’ll turn to your friendly neighbourhood Students' Union for help.

If you live in residence, guess what?  WLUSU, WLU and Elections Ontario have made it easy as pie for you to register to vote in the upcoming election.  Show up with a piece of identification and they will be waiting for you, ready to get you involved in the democratic process (or the ‘demos’ as the kids are calling it these days).

What if you live off-campus, in one of your luxury student mansions?  You are probably saying right now, “Chris is there anything you can do for me?”

Well, students living on campus do not have access to rental or lease agreements, Gas or Hydro bills, credit card/bank statements or other forms of ID found here (see Schedule B).  However students living off-campus may have those documents that list their Kitchener-Waterloo address.  Taking these documents, and a piece of photo ID to a polling location will allow you to register and vote in the election.

But now you are saying- “Chris, seriously, I just moved back to Waterloo and none of those things have my local address.  So can you still help me?”

Yes, yes and yes.  Here’s how:

Despite what you may have heard, WLUSU and Elections Ontario have come up with a way to assist off-campus students and their long quest for proof of residence.  Simply go here and enter the pertinent information.  We will work with WLU to send you a letter that Elections Ontario will accept for proof of residence.  Take this letter and your piece of ID to one of the locations listed on your letter.  There, you can register and vote!

If you would like to enter your information and would like to pick up the letter at WLUSU’s offices, then please feel free to email me at chyde@wlu.ca.

Thanks for reading my blog and if I can enrich your Laurier experience in any way, please do not hesitate to ask..

Chris Hyde

WLUSU’s Director of Policy, Research and Advocacy