"[1] But on January 13, 2012, the Canadian government said it planned to repeal Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act[2] due to technological changes and the inability to enforce it.
[4] In this system, knowing or guessing the results of one riding impacted the way the political parties and people acted in the others.
"The system allowed the party in power to hold elections in a safe riding first, hoping in this way to influence the vote in constituencies less favourable to them.
[4] There was no real effect to the democratic process because of these long, drawn out elections because communication between ridings and provinces was very slow.
In 1938, a ban was put in place to stop the transmission of results from one area to another before polls were closed.
[6] At the end of the 20th century, the ban started to feel obsolete in the face of technology, but bigger issues came to the surface.
The ban's main purpose was to compensate for the time gap between Eastern and Western Canada.
"Under staggered voting hours, only results from less than ten percent of ridings could be available to late voters since the majority of polls across Canada open and close at the same time.
[8] British Columbia resident Paul Bryan posted election results in Atlantic Canada before the polls closed in B.C.
[8] When the British Columbia provincial court charged him, Bryan argued that his actions were protected in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
He had the support of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the National Citizens Coalition, and the CBC.
It allowed the media to inform B.C voters results of the election in Eastern Canada before polls closed in British Columbia.
"[9] In the Supreme Court's view, Section 329 "contributes in a positive way to the fairness and reputation of the electoral system.
Twitter users used proxy names for parties (from fruit and soft drinks) and created fake accounts to get away with sharing the illegal information.
[12] On January 13, 2012 the federal government announced it "would end the ban on posting early election results before polls closed across the country.
Due to a feed switching error at the network's master control on the night of the 2011 election, CBC Television's live broadcast to the Atlantic Provinces, where the polls had already closed, began broadcasting to the rest of the country in lieu of the prerecorded lead-in special that was supposed to air at that time.