Elections Canada hops on social media to battle ballot confusion

OTTAWA — Social media on election day can be the Wild West, with the tumbleweeds of misinformation blowing in left and right. Luckily, there’s a new sheriff in town: the Elections Canada X account. After a day of posting infographics telling people how and when to vote, the social media managers hopped onto X to respond to various complaints and inquiries. These ranged from complaints about poll workers asking voters who they voted for, to claims that other workers were stealing ballots. Elections Canada was quick to shoot down the latter allegation.

Hi. We use empty ballot boxes to transport the materials needed to set up the polls on election day. There are many safeguards in place to manage the custody of the ballots and ballot boxes. (1/3)— Elections Canada (@ElectionsCan_E) April 29, 2025

X users also made claims that a promotional video on the account of the Conservative candidate for York Centre, Roman Baber, was filmed at a polling station. Elections Canada was quick to respond to these posts, stating that they believed no election policies were broken.

Hi there. This does not appear to be a polling location. Candidates are permitted to campaign on election day, and it is quite common for them to engage in initiatives to get their supporters to the polls.— Elections Canada (@ElectionsCan_E) April 29, 2025

Like any good sheriff, the Elections Canada account admins had to make sure people were following the law.

Did my part showing my full support for @GlenArm11635134 and the @peoplespca team led by the fearless @MaximeBernier pic.twitter.com/Icoa9KFRuU— Real Deal Neal (@real_deal_613) April 28, 2025

Elections Canada maintained that posting any photos of election ballots is illegal, ironically using a staged photo of someone casting their ballot to illustrate this point.

Remember! Voting in Canada is completely secret. It is illegal to break the secrecy of the vote, including by taking pictures of a marked ballot. This prevents people from being influenced to vote a certain way. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/GVXAITvoMU— Elections Canada (@ElectionsCan_E) April 28, 2025

The official Elections Canada website has had lots of difficulty running on election day, possibly due to an increase in web traffic. Many reached out to the X account to express their concern with this, with Elections Canada claiming they’ve alerted the proper channels, before offering their phone number as a solution.

Hello. We are sorry for the inconvenience. We have informed the appropriate teams. For information about your assigned polling station, please call us at 1-800-463-6868. Thank you.— Elections Canada (@ElectionsCan_E) April 29, 2025

Polls have now closed across much of the country, which means Elections Canada may soon have to switch from fielding complaints about the process of the election to gripes about the results. National Post Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.