Early election results ban breached on Twitter

CBC News

Posted: May 2, 2011 9:06 PM ET

Last Updated: May 2, 2011 11:09 PM ET

Back to accessibility links
Canadians have posted election results on Twitter prior to the closure of polls across the country. Canadians have posted election results on Twitter prior to the closure of polls across the country.

Beginning of Story Content

Twitter users breached Elections Canada's ban on the premature transmission of election results Monday night, turning to the microblogging site to share information before the polls closed on the West Coast.

Tweettheresults.ca, a website that had pledged to host tweets containing election results, temporarily shut itself down until all polls had closed Monday night.

Rather than host tweets sent out using the #tweettheresults hashtag, the site explained how people could find them on Twitter.

Elections Act: Section 329

No person shall transmit the result or purported result of the vote in an electoral district to the public in another electoral district before the close of all of the polling stations in that other electoral district.

Section 329 of the Elections Act prohibits the transmission of election results to areas where the polls are still open. Accordingly, results couldn't be published until polls closed in B.C. and Yukon at 10 p.m. ET.

The #tweettheresults hashtag hit Twitter's list of international trending topics Monday evening.

Shortly after the polls closed in Newfoundland and Labrador, a satirical tweet with election results seemingly redacted caused some confusion.

"Conservatives ███ █████ in ███ ridings," the tweet said. "Liberals ███ █████. NDP █████ ██ ███ ███ seats!"

That had some users concerned that Twitter was censoring tweets containing election results.

Results accidentally broadcast

Election results were also accidentally broadcast in areas where the polls hadn't closed, including by the CBC.

"At approximately 9 p.m. ET, CBC experienced a technical error which resulted in early election results from Eastern Canada being broadcast on CBC News Network," said Jonathan Whitten, the CBC's executive director of news content.

"The error was resolved within several minutes and normally scheduled programming resumed."

End of Story Content

Back to accessibility links

Story Social Media

End of Story Social Media