Election ID changes could mean headaches for Nunavut voters

With more than a month left in the federal election campaign, there's still a lot of time for Northern voters to make up their minds.

But if voters in Nunavut wait too long to think about how they'll vote, they might be caught off guard.

The vouching process —- that's been popular in many Northern communities —- has undergone some major changes. Elections Canada estimates 120,000 people used the vouching process to vote in the 2011 election.

This year, voters won't just have to prove who they are. They'll have to prove where they live. Either with government-issued photo identification, or two other pieces of ID.

And a voter identification card is not an acceptable proof of address. You can't vouch for someone's identity, but you can vouch for one person's address.

• RELATED: 6 things Northerners need to know about voting in the federal election

However, some Iqaluit residents aren't pleased with the changes.

"This makes it harder for me to vote, I don't think I can vote now, I don't [have] ID, I'm from Edmonton, so I don't how I'm going to vote," says Abdiilah Hassan, a transient worker living in Iqaluit, though he adds he doesn't have a problem with the ID requirement in principle. "I think you should have ID to vote, because how do you know if you're a member of Canada?"

"It's stupid, everyone should be able to vote, like it's not right," said Connor Kenneally-Sloan of the changes.

"I know some people that it took them several weeks to get their IDs," he said. "Some of my friends just don't have photo IDs, or theirs is expired."

Getting an ID card in Nunavut can be a challenge. Even if you manage to get the right kind of photo and fill out all the forms, receiving the card is often another story.

"For the actual card to come it generally takes four to six weeks, meanwhile you would have received a temporary identification card, which doesn't have a photo," says Jordan Aariak, a manager with Iqaluit's Motor Vehicles division. 

The process of getting a piece of photo ID can be even more complicated for people in Nunavut's smaller communities. Their cards will spend even longer in the mail.