Section 329 of the Elections Act reads,
“No person shall transmit the result or purported result of the vote in an electoral district to the public in another electoral district before the close of all of the polling stations in that other electoral district.”
The polls in Newfoundland and Labrador close at 8:30pm local time whereas those in BC close at 7pm. In reference to the Eastern time zone, those eastern polls close at 7pm and those polls on the west coast at 10pm. Therefore, it is technically illegal to broadcast results of any poll between 7pm and 10pm tonight though results should be available as early as 7:45pm.
In this age of new media, bloggers, facebookers and twitterers are expected to operate in the framework of an antiquated law. When this provision of the Elections Act was written, the intent of the law was to prevent television networks from broadcasting results in Newfoundland to British Columbia in order to prevent BC voters from having results before they cast their own ballots. Now that new media offers populist broadcasting to everyone with a mobile phone or a computer, how will Elections Canada enforce this provision of the Elections Act?
In my opinion, this section is a violation of free speech. Yes, I understand the reasoning behind it, yet I do believe that the law does not reflect reality in this age of self-broadcasting. Laws should be enforceable because when it is impossible to enforce a law, a law ceases to have effect. If the purpose behind the law is valid (to prevent “specially informed” voters), a more realistic method of achieving it is required. It is much more reasonable to close all polls at the same moment no matter the time zone.
What is to stop an Atlantic Canadian from updating her twitter status as to the result of her Newfoundland riding? Or the Prince Edward Islander from posting who is in the lead on his Facebook wall? Since the possible forums for national broadcast have gone from a limited three television networks to practically limitless social media outlets, this particular provision of the Elections Act is de facto unenforceable.
And who is responsible for the rebroadcasting of early results? Do I shut down Blogging Tories for three hours this evening because a blogger whose RSS feed I aggregate there may put me in violation of the Act? Is the situation similar for Google Reader and iGoogle which both act as an RSS reader? More broadly, will Google shut down its Blogger site to Canadian IP addresses? Will Twitter face sanction because a Canadian might convey information to another Canadian through its American-hosted service?
Indeed, the law does not reflect reality and must be changed. What remains to be seen is whether change will come from mass social media violation of s.329 or through the legislative process.
Stephen Taylor is a scientist, political analyst and a blogger. Taylor writes here regularly and is the founder of bloggingtories.ca. Taylor has contributed to Macleans, CTV, talk radio and has been a featured speaker on new media at numerous events including the Western Standard Cruise and the Forum for Public Policy. In December 2008, Taylor organized Rally for Canada, a series of rallies held coast-to-coast to protest the proposed coalition government.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Things could be worse — we could be living in Russia with all of those time zones.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Actually Stephen, I grew up out West and in every election I can remember, it was more or less decided before the polls closed in BC. This is one of the reasons that Western Alienation exists; that everything is decided in Central Canada and the votes in Western Canada don't matter. The 1993 election was decided before the votes in Manitoba were even counted. Those provisions in the Elections act were put in place by the Chretien Government to try to placate the West. Perhaps you are right though in that it should be changed, because in the end it doesn't really matter as every election is decided by Central Canada anyway. Its just that as a Westerner, I don't like to have my nose rubbed in it when I see the results elsewhere in Canada before I even get a chance to vote. I just hope this time it will be decided in the Tories favour
.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Thankfully that the territories in the US do not have electoral votes, otherwise such a provision would be impossible here due to the sheer number of time zones to cover. Guam is on the wrong side of the International Date Line from the rest of the US and American Samoa is located far too close to its eastern edge.
I agree, the section 329 provisions are not that enforceable these days. Unless an Australia-style national filter were put into play, how exactly could this even be done?
October 14th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Brett, “Central Canada” = Manitoba & Nunavut. The people in the mainstream media who still use this term to refer to Ontario and Quebec must have been born in the 19th century. Heh.
We present-day Central Canadians only have 15/308 seats in the House of Commons and 7/105 seats in the Senate. We have a long way to go before we become an electoral powerhouse.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Laws should be enforceable because when it is impossible to enforce a law, a law ceases to have effect.
I agree, but unfortunately I can name a couple of other unenforceable laws the Conservatives seem intent on introducing or strengthening: Bill C-61 and the war on drugs.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Wouldn't it be much simpler if the law declared that no one may transmit the result of voting in an electoral district to the public until voting was complete nationwide? Scrutineers would be free give Elections Canada their results immediately, but there would be an embargo on passing on the results to media outlets until 10 pm Eastern.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I think it is really unfair for the west to be waiting to learn that Central Ontario screwed them again. I am a Londoner so I get it twice. I have to usually watch the central panty waste's being too afraid to support the blue teamand then look on worrying whether those west of Kenora are one day going to march and attack us. Western Alienation is a serious problem but I really don't buy it is because the election outcome is known before their polls close. Westeran alienation is a result of Eastern Main Stream refusing to accept Western Mainstream and having the political clout to back it up.
As the west grows the seat distribution has to change to more accurately reflect the west. I somehow think that Westerners need to offer an olive branch some how and make it easier for the vast Ontario majority to understand that they are just from a different place and not really all that different from themselves. I don't have the answers here.
It seems hard to believe that people in the west are so unintelligent they would rush out to vote according to Ontario's whims to somehow belong. If anything knowing our results should make them think even harder about voting against our wishes.
Seriously there has got to be a better solution. Why can't we all vote over the same 10 hours? In today's world it should not be impossible. If you can't make that time there are advanced polls for crying out loud.
12:00 noon to 10:00 pm in the east.
10:00 am to 8:00 pm in Ontario
7:00 am to 5:00 pm in the west
Does this fit the map?
Does anyone else here smell something afoot this election by way of a surprise?
I may have posted this last night I can't remember but I think back to Bob Rae's win in Ontario for the Dippers. The majority parliament was based on a 37-34% vote spread. I'm sure most will think it wishful thinking but I wonder if the Bloc vote is as solid as it shows in terms of GOTV. That has always been the true reason for the Liberal bump on election night. I wonder also if a Conservative bump may happpen with the way polls all seemed to end with an upswing?
I was out working for the GOTV in my riding and there was a lot of early voter turnout. (I visited 4 polling stations)
October 14th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
So Stephen, are you going to post the results on your blog before polls close in BC?
October 14th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I'm with Zorpheous: Level the playing field.
No matter where you live in Canada, the polls close at the same time. Maybe it could be on a rotation basis, so one region isn't penalized all the time. Maybe some regions could have a few more adance polls to compensate for earlier openings, earlier closings, whatever.
I'm not a great fan of all of this new-fangled technology whatever the perks we all enjoy from it. 'Too much room and opportunity for fraud and manipulation.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
The one comment about 10 hour polls would severly restrict my ability to vote. If it were as proposed 7 am-5 pm, would not work as I work from 8-4:30. I understand that we get 3 hours time to vote, but that does not have to be paid. I would lose money for casting my ballot.
Already I am rushed to vote today. I get home at 5 pm PDT. I like to shower, cook and eat, all part of my healthy routine I have got for myself. Hopefully I will be done all by 6:30 as I am having basic dinner, then I get to jog up to the polling station, and vote. We in B.C. should have the same polling stations open to 9:30 pm as Ontario enjoys.
October 14th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I altogether agree with Stephen's thesis here.
I altogether disagree with Devin and think, from Spiltbongwater's description of his/her day that he/she could quite easily accommodate election day once every few years. (And perhaps, as batb suggests, the times might be rotated.)
Given the wide latitude for voting locally at the advance polls—my husband and I both took advantage of this option—I agree with the suggestions of Zorpheous and Phil Hauser.
October 14th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
The only solution I can think of is to put the onus on returning officers and not allow ballot boxes to be opened until ALL polls are closed – and have them all opened at once. That means counting cannot begin in Newfoundland until 11:30 pm though.
October 15th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
If people and voters would just learn to keep themselves better informed (watch CPAC) they would know which candidate to vote for.
Why in the hell did Fry have to get in?….. AGAIN?…. silly “strategic” voters. Bunch of morons.
Hope they're happy with there lousy pick especially since there were clearly better options available from other parties.
Do people not understand how our democracy works?? vote for the candidates stupids!
ahwell, least the conservatives got more seats…
They're party and platform and leader and TEAM are strong enough to keep the not-so-great/less experienced MPs in line and reasonably progressive (in all meanings of the phrase).
I'm happy enough with the results. To bad the Liberals are still around as official opposition rather than the NDP.
Thats Jacks fault for his delusional and over ambitious expectations to lead this country…. moron.
They should change their party name to B.I.R.S.
Blind Ignorant Radical Socialist.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I doubt very much that Blogger/Google would ever shut anything down, given their track record (appeasement of the Chinese, refusing to remove libellous and/or offensive blogs, etc.).
Besides, all those blogs are hosted on U.S.-based servers and as such, they should be exempt from the provision in the law, even if the author is actually located in Canada.
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