Election Problems and Solutions

[Jack Bennest]

A number of stories on social media and TV networks letting the lead out a little early on election
results.

Here is the solution:

Increase the number of advance polls sessions
Assign the same but best hours in a two day election days process with all polls closing at the same time
say 4:30pm in the west and 8:30 in the
east. Then the whole country gets to watch the election together.

Can you find any flaw in this?

[jon]

Employers of West Coast office workers would have a hissie fit if they had to fit four hours off for all employees by 4:30 in the afternoon on election day. I think 7pm is probably the earliest you could close the polls anywhere in the country. 7pm Pacific is 11:30pm in Newfoundland.

That, I think, would work.

It gets around the issue of media blackouts, including Twitter and FaceBook, across time zones, too.

I think a single day election still works. But the mail-in voting (which works quite well, and can be done almost one month in advance) should be expanded to Internet voting. Much cheaper than manning advance polls.

[Howaboutthat]

Or here's a thought. Treat the people who vote like adults who know what they're doing, and get rid of the archaic rules regarding results.
Seems to work OK in the US.

[hagopian]

Time to start printing up the Justin Trudeau for Liberal leader posters.

Shoo In.

Killed in Papineau.

Iggy was a stiff.

Layton got the red Liberals and well - now we have a guy that uses any tactic he wants in a minority and we give him a majority.

Oh, this will be something to watch.

[jon]

Or here's a thought. Treat the people who vote like adults who know what they're doing, and get rid of the archaic rules regarding results.

It has hit me as very odd how strongly, over the last few months, some federal government officials, elected and otherwise, have defended the rules, which date from 1938. A little background on the time period helps make sense of it all.

Radio was the great threat, as it provided the only affordable (for the average voter) instant communications over distance. Not that a voter in Vancouver would be listening to a CBC station in Newfoundland or Halifax. Newfoundland wasn't yet a part of Canada. And, even back then, DX'ing that far wasn't that easy on AM/medium wave/broadcast band. Most of the shortwave repeaters of CBC and private stations did not come on the air until World War II.

Radio stations had wire service and/or network feeds that gave them near instant access to election results from other time zones.

The real eye opener though was the federal government's view of Radio. They were so scared of it that, in the early 1930s, they had set up the legal means to control Radio in Canada. By Control, I mean: own every radio station in this country. As the U.K. did the BBC. They didn't even allow other levels of government to own radio stations.

Fortunately, it was the Great Depression and the federal government couldn't come up with the funds to cover the country in federally-owned radio stations. So, they used private stations as affiliates of the CBC.

Point being: with that kind of federal mindset, it is easy to see how the 1938 law came about to control radio stations on voting day.

[Steve Sanderson]

That law was passed by Mackenzie King...The damned Liberals!