Canadian Government accused of voting fraud

[Satan's Evil Twin]

Oh I get it all right. Your little gang up clique is butt hurt because your political party has at best lost any chances for any future election and at worst going to the new prisons that you are so eager to build.Were you planning on stuffing all the religeous folk in there Scorpio?

[canucks since 77]

Oh get over yourself........ assumptions, assumptions and yet more assumptions.....

A. Post. Which. Is. Beyond. Ridiculous. In. It's. Ignorance. Gets. A. Facepalm. As. A. Response. Because. There. Are. No. Words. To. Adequately. Convey. The. Respondent's. Opinion. And. Disbelief. Of. The Ridiculousness. And. Ignorance. Of. Said. Post.

I'd type more but I'm too busy laughing.....

Edit: Those who know me here are well aware of my political leanings. I'm not doing your homework for you.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

At the risk of having this continue...

Misleading robocalls went to voters ID'd as non-Tories

Pattern of calls points to party's voter identification database, opposition says

An investigation by CBC News has turned up voters all over Canada who say the reason they got robocalls sending them to fictitious polling stations was that they'd revealed they would not vote Conservative.

Although the Conservative Party has denied any involvement in the calls, these new details suggest that the misleading calls relied on data gathered by, and carefully guarded by, the Conservative Party.

Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand announced Thursday that he now has "over 700 Canadians from across the country" who allege "specific circumstances" of fraudulent or improper calls. CBC News examined 31 ridings where such calls have been reported and found a pattern: those receiving those calls also had previous calls from the Conservative Party to find out which way they would vote.

P.O.V.

Do you identify yourself as the supporter of a particular party? Why or why not?

Take our poll.

Tim McCoy of the riding of Ottawa-Vanier was one of those who complained to Elections Canada. He received a bogus recorded message pretending to be from Elections Canada — but he also had two previous calls from the Conservatives.

"They did call me back from the Conservative Association and ask if they could count on my support," said McCoy, who declined to pledge his vote. He thinks that's why someone tried to mislead him.

"It looks like a hijacking of the democratic process," he added. "I would like to know who made the call pretending to be from Elections Canada and I don't really care which way the finger points. I would like to know."

Elections Canada says it never calls voters at all. However, it is only now emerging that calls impersonating Elections Canada followed previous calls by Conservative workers asking which way voters were leaning. That suggests that the "Elections Canada" calls, which are illegal, came from people with access to data gathered by the Conservative Party, which carefully controls access to it.

Asked about that, party spokesman Fred Delorey had no comment and declined an interview.

Election day calls

The pattern of legitimate so-called "Voter ID" calls, followed by bogus "Elections Canada" calls, occurs in ridings across the country.

Charles Cochrane of Saint John, N.B., made it very clear to the Conservatives that they did not have his vote. Then, on election day, he said, "The phone rang and it was a recorded message. This is Elections Canada calling, your polling station has now changed." He checked. It had not changed.

From the outset, the Conservative Party leadership has insisted it had no involvement in these calls.

"The Conservative party can say absolutely, definitively, it has no role in any of this," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper. His parliamentary secretary, Dean Del Mastro, calls claims to the contrary "baseless smears."

However, opposition leaders say the scheme could never have gone forward without callers having access to the Conservatives' proprietary database on voter intentions. Known as "CIMS," the database assigns a "smiley" face to supporters, and a "sad" face to non-Conservatives. Liberal and NDP politicians say it would make no sense to call randomly, since many of the voters misled would be Conservatives.

"Who had access to the database? Who wrote the scripts?" asked the NDP's Charlie Angus in question period Thursday. He did not receive an answer.

Lori Bruce of Fredericton thinks she has a good idea. She said the Conservatives knew she was not a supporter, and called her more than once — even identifying themselves while misdirecting her to the wrong polling station.

Voters from ridings across the country who spoke to CBC News describe receiving misleading automated calls with incorrect polling station changes after receiving Conservative Party calls. (Canadian Press)

Bruce said she received a call stating that it was "on behalf of Stephen Harper and Keith Ashfield for the Conservative party."

"At that point, he told me that my voting location had changed. I, at that point, said no, it's at the same location it always is."

Bruce then Googled the caller's number and found out it was the Conservative campaign office. Still, she wanted to be sure.

"I called the number back," she says, "and I just got an answering machine message, saying thank you for calling the Conservative Party."

Peggy Walsh Craig of North Bay, Ont., told a similar story — but received two separate calls.

"The first one was a few weeks before the election and it simply asked me one question and that was, was I going to vote for the Conservative Party — and I indicated no."

Only later did she get an anonymous second call, she said.

'Polling stations have changed'

"That was, it was Elections Canada calling and that they — due to higher than anticipated voter turnout, the polling station had been changed."

Once again, it hadn't changed at all. The same thing happened to Astrid Dimond of Mission, B.C.

Dimond said a caller told her that, "We're just phoning to let you know that the polling stations have changed."

Dimond knew better.

"And I said, no they haven't, and I hung up on her."

Dimond added that she tracked the call back to its source. The misleading call "came from the same number that all the other calls had come from, which I found out was the Conservative Party."

CBC News came up with many voters with similar complaints, including Saj Aziz in the riding of Mississauga-Streetsville, Carmen Leveille in Victoria, Gordon Webb in Guelph, May Beland in Willowdale and Susan Lapell in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's.

Aziz said a "research company" tried to find out who he was voting for as part of an "independent poll." When he declined to commit to the Conservatives, he was told that "a supervisor" would call him back. Then, he got a call from the Conservative party, trying to win him over. When that didn't work, he finally got a call saying that his polling station had moved. However, he'd already voted in the advance poll, at the right place.

In Guelph — where the robo-call scandal began — Gordon Webb says he made it clear to the Conservatives that he would not vote for them. He, too, got a misdirection call telling him to go to a phoney polling station. At least a hundred people showed up there and some of them angrily gave up on voting, blaming Elections Canada.

As for the next step, all of these voters say they want Elections Canada to get to the bottom of it.

"There definitely should be punishment," said Lori Bruce of Fredericton. "They should be punished to the fullest extent of the law."

In North Bay, where the Liberals lost by just 18 votes, Peggy Walsh Craig said, "I care a lot about democracy and so I'm appalled that this is happening."

"It raises enough questions that it makes me wonder about the results here."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/03/15/pol-investigation-.html

Whether Harper himself will be implicated, I can't wait to see this resolved and some people behind bars. With the way this has been handled, Con apologists look quite silly now.

[canucks since 77]

And out of fairness.

Robocalls could have been mistakes, Tory MP says

People are jumping to conclusions, Dean Del Mastro says.

Phone calls directing voters to the wrong polling stations in the last federal election could have been mistakes, and people should stop jumping to conclusions, Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro says.

Del Mastro, who has been leading his party's defence in the controversy over live and automated election phone calls, said nobody has come forward to say they didn't vote because they first went to the wrong polling station.

"So where are these people? Where are these people? Where are these people saying that I got the call, I went to the wrong station, and then I didn't vote?" Del Mastro said on CBC's Power & Politics.

"There haven’t been any. No one has stepped forward and said that."

"Some of these things, as I've already indicated, could have well been mistakes. I don't understand why folks jump to these things and run to a conclusion that they have no evidence of."

CBC News reported Thursday that an analysis of reports from 31 ridings across Canada showed a pattern indicating those who got misleading or fraudulent calls sending them to the wrong polling location had also gotten calls from the Conservative Party trying to find out which way they would vote.

Elections Canada opened an investigation last May into misleading calls in Guelph, Ont., in which an automated message claiming to be on behalf of the election agency directed voters to the wrong polling station. It's illegal under the Canada Elections Act to impersonate Elections Canada or to try to interfere with somebody's right to vote.

The election agency has since gotten 31,000 contacts, the majority of which were sent through internet forms organized by advocacy groups, about the controversy. More than 700 Canadians complained about specific allegations of wrongdoing related to the calls.

Del Mastro said his party supports a request by Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand to appear before the procedure and House affairs committee to discuss the investigation. That won't be decided, however, until at least March 27. MPs are back in their ridings next week so the committee won't meet again until then.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/03/16/pol-election-robocalls.html

Let no one say I am not fair.

[mrawfull]

Wow, people actually listen to robocalls? I bet they are the same idiots that think they've won a trip to Cancun or something, and have to press 9 to claim their prize

[-DLC-]

The personal attacks need to stop - everyone is allowed to have an opinion and present it without being insulted.

[canucks since 77]

The way the Harper elected head of Elections Canada is dragging his heels, I think Parliament should be prorogued till this mess is sorted out. Would serve Steven right after he did it twice to the rest of Canada.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

The personal attacks need to stop - everyone is allowed to have an opinion and present it without being insulted.

[Buggernut]

.

Still baiting I see. It's amazing how much fun it is when you can insult some one without any consequences isn't it? Ask it as a question and it's not an insult anymore.. How clever. Did you come to discuss politics or to blow hot air up my ass. Or maybe a digruntled conservative trying to get this thread locked?

[canucks since 77]

[Lillooet_Hillbilly]

they all lie to you it doesn't matter which side is in controll

[DonLever]

Since everyone votes by secret ballots, how do the Conservatives know you are a Liberal or a NDP voter?

And if it is automated or random, then Conservative would also get the calls, yet it is only the Liberals and NDP supporters are complaining.

That can only mean the Liberals and NDP are sore losers.

[Buggernut]

Since everyone votes by secret ballots, how do the Conservatives know you are a Liberal or a NDP voter?

And if it is automated or random, then Conservative would also get the calls, yet it is only the Liberals and NDP supporters are complaining.

That can only mean the Liberals and NDP are sore losers.

[DonLever]

<p>

Read the thread before commenting, dude, in particular, Post #80.  If you have a hard time taking anything cs77 says seriously, click the link and read it straight from the CBC site yourself.

[Buggernut]

<p>

I read the post and it just proves my point that the people coming forward are just re-fighting the last election. They are showing their political bias with their criticism. Would they be coming forward if the Liberals or NDP won the election? I think not.

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

<p>

I read the post and it just proves my point that the people coming forward are just re-fighting the last election. They are showing their political bias with their criticism. Would they be coming forward if the Liberals or NDP won the election? I think not.More importantly, why did he tell who he was voting for? That is a private matter and I never tell people who I vote for. That is what a secret ballot is for.When people phone asking who I will vote for, I either hang up or just lie since it is none of their business. eg. Are you a Liberal voter, I say yes.Are you a NDP voter, I say yes. Are you a Conservative voter, I say yes.Even if someone from the Communist Party phone, I would probably say yes. Although I never had such a call from the Communist Party.

[DonLever]

You honestly think it's their fault for all of this????

So during the Japanese Canadian internment, it was their fault for saying they were of Japanese ethnicity?

Don't blame the messenger, or the message for that matter; insult the recipients!!  I love your logic.

[silverpig]

As usual, you are completely missing my point.It is none of anybody's business who I vote for. That is what a secret ballot is for. Why should I tell a complete stranger on the phone who I vote for?Its like someone claiming to be from the bank phoning and asking for your pin number. Would you give it to him? And if you did, who should be blamed if you lost all your money?If the guy is so stupid as to tell who he is voting/or not voting for, then its too bad he lost his franchise.BTW, what does this have to with Japanese Canadians being interned? Nothing at all but a ridiculous analogy. The Japanese were not phoned anonymously asking if they were of Japanese ancestry.

[Buggernut]

As usual, you are completely missing my point.It is none of anybody's business who I vote for. That is what a secret ballot is for. Why should I tell a complete stranger on the phone who I vote for?Its like someone claiming to be from the bank phoning and asking for your pin number. Would you give it to him? And if you did, who should be blamed if you lost all your money?If the guy is so stupid as to tell who he is voting/or not voting for, then its too bad he lost his franchise.BTW, what does this have to with Japanese Canadians being interned? Nothing at all but a ridiculous analogy. The Japanese were not phoned anonymously asking if they were of Japanese ancestry.

[Gurn]

My Save on foods card and minor lottery wins are all under false names.Somebody says "read this and initial it' and I do,I just don't use my initials.