CANADA VOTES today

[KrazyHorse]

Whenever I get back to Canada I'm going to volunteer to help run a polling station.

[cinch]

My (first) voting experience was surprisingly easy, as well.

I had my voter card and was in and out of the polling station in under 3 minutes (this was at 930 AM). They didn't even ask for I.D. Crazy.

[KrazyHorse]

I've never been inside the polling station more than 10 minutes.

My absentee ballot was very easy to get this time around as well.

[joncha]

Originally posted by Giancarlo


I guess I didn't know too much about Canada afterall...

Well there's a shock. Fez making a lot of noise about something he knows nothing about.

[Imran Siddiqui]

n/m, I found it.

So how long do you expect the minority government to last?

[Fake Boris]

SEPARATISM IS DEAAAAD!!!!!

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi

YOU'RE GOING DOWN, DOSANJH!

I saw him smiling and laughing on the news this morning.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by cinch
My (first) voting experience was surprisingly easy, as well.

I had my voter card and was in and out of the polling station in under 3 minutes (this was at 930 AM). They didn't even ask for I.D. Crazy.

I voted a bit before 6pm and it took about 2-3 minutes as I had my voter card

My wife voted in the advance poll and had a similar experience even considering they had to correct sore errors on her voter card

[Agathon]

Canada is a fascist state. At home you don't need a card, you just register and tell them your name at the polling station.

We do have cards, but the penalty for not turning up with one is that you have to tell the official YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS!!! Ooohhh.

[Imran Siddiqui]

'Fascist' state for asking for an ID card to vote!

[Agathon]

Yep.

You don't need one. In NZ you must register on the electoral roll and give your details when you do so – this means that you get a document in the mail which you check and send back. These are then checked at whichever polling station you go to (any one in the country) and you get to vote. If you commit voter fraud, you are likely to be caught and prosecuted.

Shockingly, there is almost no voter fraud.

In our country, the government trusts the citizens and will only inconvenience them if they do wrong. What a wild and wacky idea!!

[Kontiki]

Yeah, I felt severely violated by having to present a piece of paper and them handing me a ballot. And as far as I know, the penalty for showing up without one is a public beating with batons - oh, wait, maybe it's just that you have to show a piece of ID that matches the address given. Same thing, I suppose.

[Asher]

Give an ID, wait over an hour, and give two oaths to under "God".

[Az]

That was ****ed up, Asher. Say, are you people assigned to a particular booth, or there is a computerized nationwide system?

In any case, it's a disgrace what happened to you. But that's no reason to not vote.

[Kontiki]

Asher's experience really is an extreme oddity. I've voted in the past without being registered, and all I had to do was show them something (a utility bill is all they needed) that showed my current address. Although I can imagine a problem if their records really do indicate that you've already voted.

And yeah, we're assigned to a particular booth at a particular voting station. If there was one relatively quick fix I'd like to see in Canada, it would be for a central database that allows you to vote at any polling station anywhere across the country for your home riding. I would think it would serve to increase voter turnout too.