Non-Partisan Election Day post.

[marnanightingale]

Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein.

There is only one election day, and it's today.

I'm pretty sure you're all savvy enough that if you got this you just laughed, but by all means, if one of your neighbours says they plan to vote tomorrow, make sure they know that it's a line of bull.

Be aware of the provisions of the Canada Elections Act:

In this election, unlike the last one, Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act will be in effect, meaning it will be effectively against the law to blog about election results until 10:00 EST, since blogging is considered transmitting "to the public."
Writing e-mail or instant messaging or for that matter talking on the phone about election results is fine, since those aren't public transmissions.

Yes, I believe in freedom of expression. I also believe in free, fair, honest elections, run according to the law, and this is the law at this time. It may change again before the next election, but meanwhile, please respect it, whether you're Canadian or not.

The polls in BC close at 7 pm, which means that results will start to be publically released at 10 PM EST. Until that time, please contain your glee, wrath, whatever. That guy in BC who has to work till 6:30 and run to the polling station has just as much right to cast his vote according to his conscience and not according to a lot of half-formed speculation about who's winning and whether his vote even matters as the rest of us do.

Not sure where your polling station is? Missing your voter card? Just plain confused about the process? Information for voters.

Elections Canada's web site is http://www.elections.ca/

Elections Canada, 257 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0M6

Telephone:

1 800 463-6868, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern time) toll-free in Canada and the United States
001 800 514-6868, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern time) toll-free in Mexico
(613) 993-2975, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern time) from anywhere in the world
For people who are deaf or hard of hearing: TTY 1 800 361-8935 toll-free in Canada and the United States
Fax 1 888 524-1444 toll-free in Canada and the United States

I'll be scrutineering again. If anyone's interested, I wrote about it last time. The post is here.

*deep breath*

OK, folks. here we go.

Today, we go out and prove again that when wielded by a determined and outspoken citizenry, the stubby little HB pencil is in fact mightier than the sword.

See you all after.

Comments

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

Good luck, Canada!

As much as I may tend to feel like responding to the current predictions with "welcome to the real world," I do hope things go well.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

May I direct your attention to our position on a map of the world? I, ah -- tend to feel we're living very firmly and inescapably in the real world up here.

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know it's a completely uncharitable and unjustified response. But you have had a vaguely left-of-center government for a while, and Canada keeps managing to do all the things that I'd like my governments to do (dual citizen speaking) and that they keep reacting against. Plus Johnny Howard has been in power since before I graduated high school and I'm really getting sick to death of the man.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Ah. I hear ya.

Yeah, you should have heard me back in the Mulroney and Harris days...

[sultrysong.livejournal.com]

I had no idea about the blogging bit, and I'm really glad you've let us know. Neat.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

Good post. Blogging bit makes sense.

[technocracygirl.livejournal.com]

That law is *awesome.* I want something like that here.

Good luck! May Canada begin to be a beacon of hope, freedom, and common sense!

[kgkofmel.livejournal.com]

Actually, NOT [e]very citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of members of the House of Commons.

I and a number of my fellow citizen ex-pats here cannot vote because we are unable to provide Elections Canada with our expected return date and unwilling to lie on a legal document.

DO NOT LET CANADA BECOME LIKE TEXAS!! I WANT A HOME TO COME BACK TO!

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I did not know that. And that's legal?

*runs back to polling station with clean shirt on*

Confused...

[jazz007.livejournal.com]

...by the blogging restriction. People are barred from writing about the possible election results, that they have no official knowledge of, in their personal journals, to people that they *are* allowed to e-mail at will, because someone voting late might not vote their concscience (sp?), based on what he read online about who's winning and what you think.

This confuses me a little bit. Does it have an alternative purpose or reasoning?

Re: Confused...

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

I suspect the intent is to prevent what happened in the Carter/Reagan US presidential race (1980) when the media announced that Carter had already lost (and he conceded, which I still have a hard time forgiving him for) before the polls had even opened in some of the Western states.

That kind of thing can have a chilling effect. I know a lot of people who would otherwise have voted for Carter didn't bother voting because of that, and it undoubtably skewed the results in a lot of local elections.

Re: Confused...

[jazz007.livejournal.com]

I guess I have trouble dealing with a government regulating stupidity, if that makes sense. People who believe unofficial sources in something important like that, letting it change their vote or make their vote not happen... just seems kind of illogical, almost? to me.

Now, I know nothing about the Carter concession - that seems equally dumb, especially if he still had even the slimmest statistical chance.

An interesting issue to think about.

Re: Confused...

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

They're not trying to regulate stupidity. They're trying to prevent the public dissemination of (mis)information that could skew the vote.

I've been wishing we had a law against publishing "exit poll" data since the Carter/Reagan election. Because whether it's illogical or not, it's been shown to have an effect on voter turnout, and that effect invariably favors the early "victor" according to the polls.

Re: Confused...

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Did you read the Elections Act? Did you read the relevant section of the Elections Act?

Did you read the surrounding articles and background on the controversy and past rulings on the relevant section of the Elections Act?

If not, you may find this helps.

Re: Confused...

[jazz007.livejournal.com]

As a short answer, hadn't before I posted. It didn't help, now that I have read, using this resource (http://www.canlii.org/ca/sta/e-2.01/), Section 16 in its entirety, and section 17 for the definitions referenced in Section 16. I think I'm going to have to realize a fundamental disagreement, and shut up out of politeness :)

Sorry to intrude.

Re: Confused...

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Eh, had you caught me on a better day I'd have been less testy.

[xinef.livejournal.com]

Well, will be interesting to hear what the pundits have to say tomorrow. I'm glad it looks unlikely to be a conservative majority. I'm very glad. I'm also really glad that it looks like the NDP will have more seats than they've had in a long time. Nice balance to the increased number of conservatives. In my opinion, the Liberals needed a kick in the behind, but I am glad that they haven't been wiped out. Life in Canada will be interesting.

[xinef.livejournal.com]

Interesting article in New Scientist on spin in this election.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8615