Seen at the CBC (via Election Law Blog):
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a legal ban on reporting early vote results on federal election nights in regions of the country where the polls are still open.
In a 5-4 decision, the top court ruled the section of the Canada Elections Act that bans the publication of voting results until all federal polls close on election night does not violate the Charter of Rights.
The arguments against the ban were essentially that recent technology (e.g., the ‘net) makes such a ban impossible to enforce (unless you gag the entire country). The support for the ban was that the ban is in place for only a couple of hours, and levels the playing field when it comes to what information voters are armed with when they go into the polling booths.
While such a ban in the U.S..if it could ever be passed.would certainly render election night a heckuva lot duller for election stats junkies like me on the East Coast, I do have to say that it just seems wrong that winners can be declared before everyone has finished voting.