[EM] Responses to some of Forest's ideas

[Blake Cretney]

On Thu, 26 Jul 2001 13:01:33 -0700 (PDT)
Forest Simmons <fsimmons at pcc.edu> wrote:

> On Tue, 24 Jul 2001, Richard Moore wrote in part:
> 
> This brings up the East to West time lag on election day. The exit
polls
> are going strong on the East coast before the West coast voters cast
their
> votes.
> 
> The East coast folks have an advantage because their results might
> discourage the West coast folks from even bothering to vote, for
example.
> 
> The West coast folks have an advantage because they have more
information
> about the preferences of other voters.
> 
> Which side of the country has a bigger advantage?
> 
> Forest

In Canada the government requires cable companies to black out
national and American television for the west, until polls close. 
Last I heard, Elections Canada was pursuing a case against a westerner
for posting early election results on a web page.

One advantage to the west of the information would be to avoid wasted
votes, and that might be part of what concerns the federal government.
 A more significant advantage in the Canadian system would be to know
who was going to win, and therefore vote for the governing party, in
order to get the rewards of backing the winning side.  In reality,
however, most westerners almost always vote against the government. 
Rightly or wrongly, it is more important to westerners to signify
their displeasure with the federal government than to get any extra
federal money.

---
Blake Cretney