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She warned that ineligible voters could cast a ballot using the cards as one form of ID and the public’s confidence in the electoral system as a whole would be diminished.

The council and federation argued in court Thursday that there is little evidence of intentional voter fraud, but Mohr said that safeguards against ineligible voters casting a ballot are still required.

“Whether as a result of fraud or by mistake doesn’t matter, there is still an irregularity that affects the election result,” she said.

The potential damage from allowing voter information cards as valid ID is greater than any potential damage caused by not allowing people to use the cards, she said. Mohr told the court it’s important that the system is perceived to have safeguards against ineligible voters casting a ballot.

In 2011, 400,000 voters used the voter information card as valid ID as part of a pilot project, but Mohr says it’s unknown how many of those actually needed the card because they had no other option. If some of those who used the card had another option, then those voters will be able to cast a ballot in the next election, casting doubt on the estimate of tens of thousands, she said.

The government said the use of voter information cards as valid ID is not needed to ensure Canadians have the ability to vote. The cards may make it easier for some people to vote, but convenience is not the government’s duty, Mohr said.

Voters have the option to chose from dozens of different forms of identification, and those pieces of identification are easy to obtain, she said.