Common sense has prevailed in Quebec, where Muslim women will have to show their faces before voting in tomorrow's election.

"What's at stake here is the integrity and, as I said, the serenity of the electoral process," Mr. Blanchet said at a press conference. "Since yesterday, the chief electoral office has received numerous emails and numerous telephone calls that have raised concern about inappropriate actions being taken at the polls. Suggestions were also made, notably on the Internet, that voters should show up at polling stations with covered faces or in silly disguises."

Quebec has had issues in the past with voter fraud (remember them being ridiculed back in 1995 for having the roll of every cemetery voting YES in the referendum, yet they still lost?), and the idea of letting Allah's whores show up in disguise was raising the ire of many Quebecois.

Earlier this week Mr. Blanchet, the top civil servant in charge of running Quebec elections, said that women wearing the niqab, a full-face veil that leaves only the eyes exposed, or the burqa, a head-to-toe covering, could vote without exposing their faces if they brought photo identification to the polling station and a second person vouched under oath that they were who they claimed to be. He made the ruling in accordance with a Quebec law that wasn't necessarily designed for that purpose. After the Journal de Montreal uncovered the story, outrage erupted--fuelled by concerns an exception for Muslim women would facilitate fraud, such as people casting multiple ballots or without being qualified.

Labels: Canadiana, Immigration, Islam