Thanks to Elections Canada rules about not divulging the outcome of a vote to a region that is still voting, news outlets will have to be careful about their results tonight. That means that CBC Newsworld and other national news networks won’t be providing results until 9:30pm (ET), when polls close in the Eastern, Central and Mountain time zones, and these networks will be blacked out in British Columbia and Yukon until their polls close a half hour later.
For online, unless news outlets want to put trust in geoblocking services, expect no results until 10 p.m., when all the polls are closed and there are no restrictions on broadcasting. This will be a full three hours after the polls close in Newfoundland.
Of course, don’t expect everyone to play by the rules. Some people who are either clueless about the law or unclear on how it applies will no doubt be leaking information early.
I’d be looking at that, plus live-blogging coverage of the vote and analyzing news websites as the results come in, but I’m working tonight as one of the election copy editors. Feel free to use the comments section as a forum to point out anything you notice.
If I notice something late tonight or tomorrow I’ll post it then.
Is posting who you voted for on your blog or in blog comments considered leaking?
I voted Liberal, since they have a candidate in my riding who is both female and part of a visible minority, both seriously misrepresented in parliament. She is Liberal, but that is just a small detail. Unfortunately she won’t be elected since our riding is a Bloc stronghold with more than 50 % during last elections. Their candidate is of course a pure-laine white Québeqois man.
I didn’t vote myself, my SO did it for me. She feels pity for me and let me decide who she’s voting for because I still can’t vote since Immigration Canada takes 16 months to process my citizenship application. Ten months in and counting.