Fallout of Guelph Special Ballots

So while Guelph's special ballot has been unequivocally allowed, Elections Canada has announced today that there will be no more special ballot voting.  They have ordered all returning officers from setting up special ballot boxes on university campuses, specifically.

About Mr. Sona, the office of his candidate has unequivocally denied to comment.  For some students, the stonewalling is as good as guilt, and more witnesses are coming forward about what exactly took place on Wednesday.

• Kevin Bowman said Elections Canada officials at the voting station moved quickly to block the ballot box from Mr. Sona, took him aside, and a heated debate ensued. Voting soon resumed, and the sealed ballot boxes have been returned to Ms. Budra’s (The returning officer) office.

Meanwhile, the partisan jousting continued over the issue, Mr Harper has replied that their only concern was the respect of electoral rules, and not that they were trying to surpress voting at the university.

Mr. Ignatieff meanwhile has begun using the incident as a tinder for student voting where he can.

• “This is the kind of thing you’d expect, you know, maybe in Egypt or Syria or some country that doesn’t know democracy,” Mr. Ignatieff said.

What do we think?  Is Elections Canada correct in banning special ballots over one incident?  Some more extreme left views believe this might be what the conservatives were after all along, to remove a convenient way for youth in our country to vote.  Others think it's just an extreme bureaucratic reaction on the part of EC.

Weigh in Canada!



The Globe and Mail Article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/elections-canada-puts-end-to-special-ballot-voting/article1987880/

Satirical Video: Students Don't Vote

Just a quick post, The Students Association of Mount Royal University students produced a great satirical video telling students around the country not to vote, and why.

Excellent work SAMRU!  Keep sending the word out, and get engaged!

I don't know if you should read the comments though on their youtube video page though...it's a little depressing.

Elections Canada Declares Guelph Votes Valid

Good news for democracy, and for the students of University of Guelph.

Elections Canada has ruled that the ballots cast on Wednesday by the students will be considered valid.  Recanting his previous party statements, Stephen Harper has declared "We encourage Canadians of all regions, all walks of life from all backgrounds to participate in the election and vote for the candidate of their choice," However the Prime Minister sidestepped any mention of wrong doing on the part of his MP running for office, or any of their volunteers or staff.

• "The Marty Burke campaign states that none of its workers or volunteers interfered with the process; in particular, none of its workers or volunteers touched a ballot box or ballot," the Conservative statement said.

However, counterpoint to this, is an innumerable number of student witnesses who immediately posted about it.  Here's a section of the article the CBC posted from Bren Anstett, a Guelph student.

• She said she was trying to vote when “a guy came up making a huge scene stating that this polling station was illegal and tried to grab for the ballot box.”
  
  “I found this to be disruptive and disrespectful, as many students were in the line at the time to vote,” Anstett said the posting on her Facebook page.
  
  “It was clearly a legal polling station, as there was Elections Canada, Special Ballot written on all of the documents present.”

Other students have come forward as well corroborating her statement.

In other news, perhaps Mr Marty Burke is feeling the pressure, he's already missed two of three of his scheduled debates, and he's not the only Conservative candidate to do so.  Diane Ablonczy of Calgary Nose Hill (my previous Calgary riding) has apparently declared she will not attend any debates. 


The CBC article:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/04/15/cv-election-guelph-student-vote.html

The Official Conservative Article:
http://guelphmercury.blogs.com/guelphvotes/2011/04/tories-national-office-comes-to-burkes-defence.html

Globe and Mail Weighs In on Ballot Box Grab

Upon further research, and reading more about the incident, it's clear that Mister Michael Sona is the one who could have serious allegations against him.  What he did, in trying to physically grab a ballot box was a violation of Part 9, section 167 (2) D of the Canada Elections Act.

Students across the country are becoming notably disheartened at the disregard that the Conservatives showed towards them exercising their democratic rights.  And who could blame them?  I received the original post over twitter from Pirate Party leader Mikkel Paulson, reposted to facebook and blogged here it was shared more than two dozen times within the hour.

In some ways, this 'incident' goes far and above mere 'partisanship' which is something that many of the parties like to throw out there.  Instead it shows that the party wants to disregard the now mobilizing demographic of student and youth voters.

In the rising groundswell of support, an online petition has also hit the ground, calling for the ballots to be accepted and for the conservatives to drop their investigation.  Will they be successful?  It's hard to tell at this stage, but certainly if it becomes a contentious issue, and especially if those 700 ballots are thrown out, there will be an enormous public outcry, and I shall indeed hope those students will turn out again and vote in a very contentious riding.



The Online Petition for Guelph here:
http://www.leadnow.ca/en/hands-off-our-ballots

Here's the article from the Globe
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/silver-powers/about-that-conservative-ballot-box-grab-in-guelph/article1986324/

The 'Thanks Rick Mercer' Article
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/thanks-a-heap-rick-mercer-the-students-might-actually-vote/article1985368/?utm_source=Shared+Article+Sent+to+User&utm_medium=E-mail%3A+Newsletters+%2F+E-Blasts+%2F+etc.&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links

University of Guelph Students Told Their Votes Don't Count?

This one just came to me a few minutes ago.

Essentially a conservative communications minister, named Mister Sona, (For Guelph Conservative Candidate Marty Burke) attempted to actually physically take the ballot box away, telling people around that such a special ballot was 'illegal' and that he was confiscating it.

Obviously he was stopped, but now the Conservatives' lawyer has filed injunction with Elections Canada, stating that partisan election material was at the special polling station.  If their claim goes through and is proven, as many as 700 students who voted in the sealed special ballot would have their votes thrown out.

The special ballot held at the University of Guelph is the third time it's been done, and the Elections Canada media advisor said this is the first time any objection has been raised.

Are there any students who attend Guelph who voted yesterday around to comment?

http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/517010--conservatives-ask-elections-canada-to-nullify-votes-cast-at-u-of-g-wednesday

Yvonne Su, a co-organizer of the Vote Mobs taking Guelph also wrote an article about yesterday, available here.
http://www.guelphmercury.com/opinion/columns/article/516819--just-voted-a-column-from-a-yes-woman