Elections Canada has launched an online tool to help voters block misinformation and disinformation about Canada’s election process, in an effort to protect Canadian voters from false narratives and information in the upcoming federal election. There is.
of Electfact websitelaunched this week and provides factual information to debunk the most common misconceptions observed by Canadian election officials in recent years.
“Increasing resilience to inaccurate information helps strengthen the overall health of our democracy,” Chief Elections Officer Stephane Perrault said in a statement.
“ElectoFacts is one additional step voters can take to ensure they are informed and accurate about the election process.”
The ElectoFacts website says it does not intend to establish Elections Canada as an “arbiter of truth” that actively monitors the accuracy of statements and information distributed by political parties and candidates. The agency said it will instead focus on providing accurate information about elections that Canadians can easily access.
Visitors to ElectoFacts can scroll through eight categories where disinformation takes place.
- special ballot paper.
- How to vote.
- counting process.
- voting technology.
- foreign interference.
- Election administration.
- Elections Canada.
- campaign funds.
Each category displays “observed inaccuracies” and is accompanied by a detailed explanation of what is accurate.
special ballot paper
For example, regarding the issue of special voting, or postal voting, Elections Canada says that 205,000 postal ballots were “lost, ignored” or intentionally not counted during the 2021 federal election. He said there are two biggest misconceptions.
According to the agency’s counter information, the agency issued more than 1 million special ballots in 2021, of which 883,000, or 87%, were returned and counted within the deadline.
The ElectoFacts website states that late-arriving ballots were not counted but were stored for 10 years.
The special ballot information also explains the checks and balances built into the voting system to prevent people from voting by mail and then voting again in person.
Other examples of misinformation and disinformation include whether Canadians can be bribed to buy votes, whether non-citizens can vote, whether voting machines should be used to count votes, and whether Elections Canada Examples include whether or not they are being manipulated fraudulently.
The Canadian Election Misinformation Project, jointly managed by McGill University and the University of Toronto, also examined the issue of misinformation and disinformation in the 2021 election.
their report The researchers found that while misinformation and disinformation were “widespread,” their overall impact on election outcomes was minimal.
The report said a message spread widely on social media stating that Canadians who are not fully vaccinated cannot vote.
The report also found false messages on social media claiming that candidates were excluded from ballots and that machines were counting all votes when in fact all votes were being counted by hand. It was also revealed that it was being spread on the website.
2016 US election disinformation set off alarm bells
Aengus Bridgman, director of the Canadian Election Misinformation Project, told CBC News that the 2016 U.S. election was marked by an unprecedented and aggressive disinformation campaign by Russia, and that Western countries were responding to the threat to democracy. He said he sounded the alarm.
“If it were later revealed that our election result was the result of a disinformation campaign that was decisive in the election, it would create a huge diplomatic and constitutional crisis,” he said. Stated.
Bridgman said it’s important to proactively get accurate information out there that people can access before misinformation about the election begins to spread. That’s because once disinformation spreads and gains traction, it’s much harder to counter it.
He said his research found that Elections Canada is one of the most trusted agencies in Canada, and by posting that information on his website he hopes to establish what is true and what is not. Said to be helpful.
“There’s enough evidence that this kind of thing is effective,” he said.
Bridgman said Canadians should also combat disinformation in their daily lives by resisting the temptation to cut off family, friends and neighbors and kick them out of their lives if they start supporting views based on misinformation. He said he could.
“Keeping the lines of conversation open is very important,” he said. “One of the things that can happen is that people can participate [disinformation] If you destroy the community and drive away the actual physical committee, they become isolated and that becomes very dangerous. ”
Election chief says disinformation about elections will be illegal
After the 2021 federal election, Perot released a report calling for a crackdown on hate groups, better regulation of third parties, and new laws that would make it illegal to spread disinformation about elections and voting.
The report’s recommendations are based on an analysis of what happened in both Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
Perhaps most importantly, Mr. Perot’s report called for changes to the law that would make it illegal to interfere with elections or spread information that undermines their legitimacy.
The report said action needed to be taken because the continued spread of disinformation could “threaten trust in the entire electoral system, which is the bedrock of democracy.”
Perrault said the law is in place to address the disinformation used in misleading robocalls to voters in Guelph, Ont., during the 2011 federal election.
“But at this point, there is nothing in this bill that seeks to undermine the process or undermine confidence in the outcome,” he said in 2022. “It complements a number of existing provisions. ” he said.
