How many voters will be turned away?

A few days go, when I first tried to download a special ballot application, I noticed that Elections Canada had changed it's website. It seems that no longer can one just download a straight PDF of the special ballot application, a somewhat more complicated process has now been implemented.

First off, one needs to have a recent version of Adobe Reader and not just a generic PDF reader. Then, it seems, one also has to have Java capability. Not surprisingly, even after I downloaded the Elections Canada linked-to version of Adobe Reader I was unable to access the application.

After a few failed attempts I finally got around to calling Elections Canada to ask how I might go about getting a copy of the special ballot application. The answer I basically got was that I could go to a local Elections Canada office and pick up a hard copy of the form. While explaining my problems with the form I was told that "people are having problems with it," suggesting that the problem is much more wide spread than just me. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to ask the employee exactly how widespread the problem is.

But I do wonder how many 'people' are having problems with the form and how many of these 'people' might decided to just forgo voting instead of figuring how to get a copy of the application? Given the time of year that it is, and that many students, in particular, might be discouraged by the more-complicated-than-necessary process I wonder what kind of impact this change will have? Given the low rate of voter turnout that Canada already has we can hardly afford to turn even more people away because of technological constraints.

Oh, and the best part is that this more complicated process just leads one back to a pretty straightforward PDF (maybe the same one I downloaded in 2008?) that has to be manually completed and then printed. Most the the Java based data submission is for naught and could be just as easily completed by the applicant on the final application.

What an incredibly frustrating process this has been, and all I wanted to do was download a PDF.