So did you think it was your democratic right to spoil your ballot?
"No person shall wilfully alter, deface
or destroy a ballot."
Section 167(2)(a) of the Canada Elections Act
or destroy a ballot."
Section 167(2)(a) of the Canada Elections Act
Now, that's an interesting law. Even more interesting since there are strict procedures at polling stations that ensure the legally mandated secrecy of your vote (Section 163 of the Canada Elections Act). Behind the voting screen there is no one to know how you mark your ballot, even if you do chose to spoil it, so how would the Vote Police know?
Also Election's Canada does not give you the option to refuse your ballot, and you definatly can't eat your ballot, so it seems that if there is no one that you feel deserves your vote in tomorrow's election the only option that you have is to avoid the polling station altogether.
6 comments:
Phew, you blog alot. It's difficult to keep up when you do it two or three times in one day.
I'm still not convinced that voting for multiple candidates would be considered to "willfully alter, deface, or destroy a ballot" and not achieve the effect of producing an invalid ballot while your having voted been recorded...
I am sure some insistive scrutineer somewhere would be able to argue that the checkmark beside their candidates name was bigger and therefore obviously the one I really meant to vote for! But I supose drawing an equal line through all the spaces with out a break would be construed as a correctly spoilt ballot...
Anyways, I still maintain how the hell are they going to know who spoils their ballots? The very act of their knowing would be in contravention of the law as well. It's non of their business really. Get out of my ballot box already!
I believe the correct way to spoil your ballot for a vote of non-confidence is to simply leave it unmarked.
what anony said.
Enjoyed a lot!
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