Elections Canada website biggest loser of Election Night

Election Canada’s website provides key information about the upcoming federal election, including live results. Photo by Elections Canada websiteArticle content

The NDP and Green Party both underperformed on Election Night, but the biggest fail of the evening was the Elections Canada website.

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As polls started closing and results flooded in, people who visited elections.ca likely had serious difficulty seeing the results.

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According to an email statement to the Citizen, Elections Canada was informed at approximately 7 p.m. that some electors were experiencing difficulties accessing their website.

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“We apologize for the inconvenience,” the statement reads. “We are actively working on resolving the issue.”

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Within hours, Elections Canada said a contingency measure was implemented to allow electors to access the website.

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However, the Voter Information Service that allowed electors to enter their postal code and find their polling station was still unavailable for much of the evening. Elections Canada instead used social media platforms to share important information with electors, like their assigned polling station.

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Spokesperson Diane Benson said the problem was a “technical issue,” and assured that it was not a security incident.

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“We have a contingency website, it was designed just for this kind of thing,” she added.

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Benson said she did not have any information as to what exactly Elections Canada plans to do to avoid similar technical difficulties in the future.

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“We’re continuing to investigate and find out what the exact cause was,” she said. “Until we know what it was that caused it … I don’t have the answer for that at this time.”

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