Tough on vote theft

Malcolm points out the long history of uninformed right-wing anti-democrats playing lawyer to twist election rules to their advantage.

But the more important piece of the Cons' Guelph ballot box heist is the fact that they also sought to play judge, jury and executioner by grabbing the ballots themselves - apparently trying to make sure that they'd get their way regardless of how thoroughly their lawyering failed. And that looks to be a step up from garden-variety disruption, if not entirely unprecedented.

That said, I do have to wonder whether the effort might end up backfiring severely on the Cons. After all, they've spent the entire campaign trying to lull Canadians outside of their base into believing that the election is nothing but a tiresome distraction, and that individual votes simply don't matter. But it's rather difficult to maintain that claim while actively trying to destroy votes that have actually been cast. And it wouldn't be surprising if students in particular come to value their votes far more once they're aware that their government is working to steal them.