Is there really any point to banning tweets on election day?

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Geektastic

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#1169467 5-Nov-2014 18:22

saeran: At the end of the day – even with the high early voting numbers – most people vote on election day, and it's important they aren't swayed at the last minute.

I've written about this here: http://www.beehivemandate.co.nz/comment/all-black-election-day-tweets-unacceptable/

Is there some reason why people here would be swayed when people in, say, the UK which has no such restriction would not be? Do you believe Kiwis are more gullible?

saeran

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#1169489 5-Nov-2014 19:10

Geektastic:
saeran: At the end of the day – even with the high early voting numbers – most people vote on election day, and it's important they aren't swayed at the last minute.

I've written about this here: http://www.beehivemandate.co.nz/comment/all-black-election-day-tweets-unacceptable/

Is there some reason why people here would be swayed when people in, say, the UK which has no such restriction would not be? Do you believe Kiwis are more gullible?

What's there to say that people in the UK are not swayed on election day? Sure they don't have the restriction – but that doesn't mean that their voting decisions can not be swayed.

old3eyes

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#1169495 5-Nov-2014 19:16

saeran:
Geektastic:
saeran: At the end of the day – even with the high early voting numbers – most people vote on election day, and it's important they aren't swayed at the last minute.

I've written about this here: http://www.beehivemandate.co.nz/comment/all-black-election-day-tweets-unacceptable/

Is there some reason why people here would be swayed when people in, say, the UK which has no such restriction would not be? Do you believe Kiwis are more gullible?

What's there to say that people in the UK are not swayed on election day? Sure they don't have the restriction – but that doesn't mean that their voting decisions can not be swayed.

I don't think that someone walking up to a polling booth on election day and receiving a tweet is going to vote any different to the were before the tweet..

Regards,

Old3eyes

JoeBloggs844

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#1169509 5-Nov-2014 19:46

I think the law is in place because people tend to become delirious the night before election. If they feel like things aren't going to go their way, they may use that last opportunity to blast away whatever truth distortion will influence people's vote, and this probably has great potential for abuse. Just looks at what the Nats were sending out right before election day, that a vote for the other parties will risk 'political and economic turmoil' and 'your vote is crucial' codswollop. Like there isn't political and economic turmoil already?

The nats love having the last word in parliament, so just think of what they would have done given the freedom of speech in their very last day, especially considering that John Key admitted he was 'worried' about the result, and that it's proven the Nats spread their ideologies through attack bloggers who would be going ape all over the blogosphere.

mattwnz

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#1169568 5-Nov-2014 21:22

KiwiNZ: heck yeah a tweet from ... and can skew the results rending the election invalid..... then we wake up. :P

The thing is that people do take notice of celebrity endorsements. Look at all the people who invested in finance companies, at least in part because the ads were fronted by celebrities.

saeran

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#1169629 6-Nov-2014 00:01

People are often influenced without realising it. Especially in the world of marketing and advertising we live in.

Geektastic

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#1169802 6-Nov-2014 09:47

saeran: People are often influenced without realising it. Especially in the world of marketing and advertising we live in.

I simply can't accept that disallowing even so much as the reporting of Party Leaders casting their votes on election day is necessary.

For it to have any significant relevance and effect I suspect a ban would need to run for at least 4 weeks before anyone could vote. A ban for a few hours of one day simply cannot make a significant difference.

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Ragnor

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#1170781 7-Nov-2014 12:51

saeran: important they aren't swayed at the last minute.

Why is it more important that people aren't swayed on the day vs anytime before that?

saeran

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#1171135 7-Nov-2014 20:35

Ragnor:
saeran: important they aren't swayed at the last minute.

Why is it more important that people aren't swayed on the day vs anytime before that?

Anytime before voting day and people have time to think about their decision before making it.

On voting day it would only be a few minutes between considering changing and being in the voting booth.

MikeB4

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#1171138 7-Nov-2014 20:40

I would rather they restricted campaigning to one week prior the election only and ban all the unsightly billboards.

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