Canadian by-elections, 2012

[Hash]

I'm certainly getting very excited over constituency polling for a by-election.

[Hash]

Well, this is really off-topic, but I'm always in downtown Ottawa on weekdays if anybody, randomly, decides to visit Bytown for whatever reason.

[Hash]

the NDP now carry the heavy-weight candidate card, will it make the difference?

The chair of the local school board is not a particularly noteworthy candidate. This person doesn't even have a wikipedia page about her.

Don't destroy their fantasies.

[Hash]

Looking bad

[Hash]

This kind of reminds me of those QC by-elections in 2001 or 2002 where the ADQ swept basically everything and went from like 10-15% to winning with 50ish%.

[Hash]

OK, congrats NDP. Anything which gives a black eye to Tim Hudak is fine by me, even if this is terrible.

[Hash]

Nice job, Tim Hudak!

[Hash]

Random question: does Canada have the same "if you're in line when polls closed then you get to vote" standard as U.S. elections? I'm aware that line-ups are rarely longer than 15 or 20 minutes so it's not really as much of an issue.

I worked during the last federal and provincial elections and I don't recall that it came up, but I think we would have let everybody in line vote.

[Hash]

Random question: does Canada have the same "if you're in line when polls closed then you get to vote" standard as U.S. elections? I'm aware that line-ups are rarely longer than 15 or 20 minutes so it's not really as much of an issue.

I think so. I've never seen it happen though. Whenever I've scrutineered, there is barely anyone around when the polls close. But then again, polls close late in Ontario to accommodate the west. (compare Durham is closing at 9:30 local time and Calgary Centre is at 7:30 local time).

Things are different in the UK, right? I remember huge issues in their last election.

To those who already scrutineered, does lanes are common, or quite rare?

It really depends on the time of day. When people get off work in the evenings or at lunch, or in the morning before they go to work; there's a good chance that there will be a lineup. In October, we had a pretty big lineup starting at around 5:30-6pm which lasted 30 minutes after a really, really dead afternoon. It always stays a bit busy after 7pm until the polls closes.