After all the political rhetoric and the five leaders taking stabs at each other whenever possible, the decision is finally in our hands. Voters across the country will head to the polls today to have their say on where the country is headed in the next few years. Election coverage begins on CBC half an hour before the polls close in your local riding area this is of course because there is a federal ban on releasing electoral results from one area of the country before the polls close in another.
In the year 2000 British Columbia software designer Paul Bryan posted results on his blog from the Atlantic Canada polling stations before the stations in the west had closed. He of course was taken to court and convicted having to pay a 1000 dollar fine. The battle went through the ringer in court and had many backers including the CBC but eventually in 2007 the supreme court ruled that the ban will be upheld. It is crazy to believe that this can possibly be enforced in this media obsessed world but it will definitely be interesting to see if anyone else trys to challenge the system tonight.
What do you think? is it possible to uphold a ban that almost seems irrelevant to the communication era we are living in? We shall see how long this ban will stay relevant.
