NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Elections Canada has a simple message for residents of the NWT this tax season.

Elections Canada is encouraging NWT residents to check the box on their income tax form that allows their name, address and date of birth to be shared by Revenue Canada with Elections Canada. Officials say it is an easier way to get on the voters registration list. - NNSL file photo

To guarantee a spot on the voters list in future elections, there is a box on income tax forms that allows the filer's name, date of birth and address to be shared with Elections Canada.

Elections Canada points out that about 80 per cent of residents in southern Canada check that box while in the NWT, the percentage is only about 50.

Elections Canada spokesperson Melanie Wise said they would like to up that percentage in the North.

"Since the 1990s, Elections Canada has maintained a permanent data base of voters," Wise said. "All (people) really need to do is make sure we have their latest address. Ticking the box on your tax return is the easiest, most seamless way of making sure that your voter registration information is up to date."

Wise said Elections Canada also shares the information with Elections NWT, which means eligible voters end up on both voter lists. She also addressed any issues residents might have about privacy.

"Elections Canada, like all government agencies, has to comply with the Privacy Act and other legislation protecting private information," Wise said. "We have all of the right security parameters, so the consent people are giving is just to share those three bits of discreet bits of information: name, address and date of birth. That's it, that's all."

Elections Canada is pleased that voter turnout across most of the country was higher for the Oct. 19 election than it had been in recent years, according to Wise. But she said that the agency would like to see higher voter registration numbers as well.

"Across the country it's 94.5 per cent of eligible voters were registered to vote while in the NWT that number dips to 91.9 per cent. We could do a little better for voter registration," Wise said.

Steven Ford, a tax preparer at H and R Block in Yellowknife said employees are supposed to ask clients during the interview process whether he or she wants their name, address and date of birth shared with Elections Canada.

"We ask the question . it's part of the process and procedure that we go by," Ford said. "Obviously I don't sit with every client so I can't speak for anybody else or the interview process that takes place with every client."

The Fair Elections Act, introduced by the Harper Government in 2014, made it more challenging for some residents of the NWT to register to vote. It did away with the long-time practice of vouching, where one member of a community could guarantee for another person's residency

By checking the Elections Canada box on their income tax form in order to become a registered voter, it would do away with the need for vouching.