Okay so according to Ignatieff we are turning into Syria because our government is allegedly viciously denying students the right to vote. Meanwhile, Elections Canada has declared the controversial poll unauthorized and thus illegal. Part of the justification for this advance mobile special ballot poll was that students are very busy during exams. So I decided to check the University of Guelph exam schedule, and 95% of exams are done by April 21, and 100% are done by April 25. Most students are going to be done school and back home before regular advance polls open on the 22nd. Students in campus residences (numbering in the thousands) have to move out within 24-48 hours of their last exam. At least those were the rules when I was a student at the University of Guelph.
It sure seems to me like the purpose of this illegal poll was to have as many students as possible vote in Guelph instead of going back home to vote. Guelph is a battleground riding. Most of these students will be relaxing at home with lots of spare time on their hands May 2nd. Meanwhile working parents in Guelph do not have mobile advance polls at their workplace to facilitate more convenient voting. Normally this kind of mobile advance poll is reserved for military and the sick, but somehow students are supposed to qualify?
It is odd that Elections Canada would announce the votes are valid after the poll violated election law because they did not have proper oversight. If the law has been broken, the Chief Electoral Officer should order a full audit of all registrations and votes at the illegal poll. Make sure the agents there on the scene followed the rules, even if the poll itself was against the rules. Somebody wanted as many U of G students as possible to vote in Guelph before going home, where they are also eligible to vote. Quick, somebody call the police, and have the CBC meet them at the Guelph election office.
We all know what the deal was with this poll. The Liberals cooked up this plan to stuff the ballot boxes with liberal votes. EC said ok fine this time but don't do it again Iggy.
ReplyDeletehttp://bcblue.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/liberals-caught-setting-up-people-to-get-tossed-from-con-rally/ hmmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Elections Canada would be willing to allow offices in downtown Toronto to set up special polls so office workers living in the suburbs could vote in the riding where their office is instead of where they live. This would totally skew the results (most likely in favour of the Conservatives) and would not be allowed, but it is exactly what is happening allowing students to vote in ridings where they don't reside.
ReplyDelete"I wonder if Elections Canada would be willing to allow offices in downtown Toronto to set up special polls so office workers living in the suburbs could vote in the riding where their office is instead of where they live."
ReplyDeleteHow about voting downtown and at home in the burbs. How can Elections canada varify that you have voted twice. You have two residencies just like the students. I would like to have the opportunity to vote twice IF the Guelph students can. How can elections Canada guarantee us that the students can't vote twice!!! Who checked that these students were Canadian citizens? Are you not to vote where your residence is on May 2?
The entire episode smacks of corruption in Elections Canada. There is no reason to have this poll,and the fact that it wasn't properly scrutinized requires the poll be declared illegal and all the ballots destroyed.
ReplyDeleteThis is typical of the Liberals,and is another example of why there was so much corruption in the Chretien government,the only rule is WIN,at any cost.
Elections Canada has absolutely NO credibility if they allow this farce.
DMorris
Jane Taber had Rick Mercier on QP this morning.He is a big cheerleader for this vote. He wants to see Elections Canada put these voting polls in all universities across Canada.OMG. How can this be allowed to stand?
ReplyDelete1. Everybody knows that the majority of young university students vote Liberal. That's why Rick Mercer is doing what he's doing.
ReplyDelete2. If the poll was not illegal, why did Elections Canada stop other universities from doing what The U of G did?
I wrote the following on SDA:
ReplyDeleteIf it can be proven, WITHOUT QUESTION, that even ONE of those students voted twice, [or non-Canadian voted] then Elections Canada is in contempt of Canada and their own laws were broken.
They should all be fired and charged if this is proven, just like the Constantly Bashing Canada [CBC]; Human Rights Commission; Canadian Wheat Board etc....
Can't wait until tomorrow - new news network ....
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EC has a lot of explaining to do - not only now, but after the election if these votes change the results in that riding then how can they gain the trust of Canadian voters.
We should be encouraging all citizens to vote.
ReplyDeleteMany students will be busy on May 2- traveling to summer jobs ,changing living accommodations etc. and not near their home riding
It is my understanding that if one wants their vote to be counted in their "home riding" it has to be done by "special ballot" which gets sent to Elections Canada in Ottawa & then dispersed to their home riding for the count.
Check it out on Elections Canada web site.
Special ballot is not the same as advance poll.
Norma, everyone will be busy on May 2. Going to work, picking up kids, hockey, shopping, on and on. I am not convinced that students need a special time to vote. I have two nephews in University. They will be done exams by then and will be sitting around back at home playing video games by election time.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall from my time in the miltary, we also voted in advance of the election (the bar at the mess was still closed on polling day, which was annoying...), but we cast our votes in the riding we were registered in, not the one we happened to reside in. I did once suggest that we should all register in Trudeau's riding and make sure the S.O.B. got the boot, which did my career no good whatsoever...
ReplyDeletePerhaps a few emails to EC asking how they intend to ensure that these students don't vote twice is in order.
ReplyDeleteNorma - I agree Special Ballots are not the same as Advance Polls.
ReplyDeleteHowever, what you gloss over in your analysis is that there is NO need for a ballot box in the case of Special Ballots. The election official at the U of G should have provided the appropriate envelopes to the students who attended to vote by Special Ballot so that they could mail the ballots to arrive in Ottawa before May 2.
There is more to this story which I am sure it will come out in due course. In the meantime, let's encourage everyone to vote by the rules, not make some lame excuse for what was an admitted illegal activity by Elections Canada.
stephen p
In the 2008 election, I had to vote by special ballot.
ReplyDeleteI live in Vancouver Island-North, and was working on the eleciton in Vancouver Centre.
To vote, I had to go into the EC office and ask for a special ballot, which I filled in. I had to write the name of my candidate out as there were no names on the ballot. I was given a list of official candidates in my riding so that I would have the names. Ballot filled out and put into the special envelopes and then into a special ballot box and I was done. No big deal.
However, the Special Ballots at Guelf stink to high heaven. An obvious attempt to stuff the box with Liberal votes in one riding instead of allowing the students to go back to their home ridings to vote.
Shame on Elections Canada for allowing this! Shame on us for letting them get away with it!
Any student voting by Special Ballot is voting for a candidate in his/her home riding and not the riding where the school is located. One can argue that students shouldn't be using Special Ballots if in fact they're not in school on the day of the election but the notion that the Guelph riding was due to be swamped by student votes is not correct.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=bkg&document=ec90540&lang=e
Mike, if the students sign-up using their University address, their vote will register in their University riding.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, there is a difference between special ballots and advance polls, which is why I called it "this advance mobile special ballot poll". I suppose the correct terminology is voting station, but semantics does not alter the point I was making.