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Elections Ontario believes opinion polls should be banned leading up to election day

FILE-Voters line up outside a voting station to cast their ballot in the Toronto's municipal election in Toronto on Monday, October 22, 2018. Municipalities across Ontario will elect new local governments on Monday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Ontario’s chief electoral officer is proposing a ban on political poll results leading towards the end of the campaign. 

In the new Election Ontario’s 2022 post-election report, Chief Electoral Officer Greg Essensa recommends the province dismiss the practice of published political poll reports two weeks prior to election day, as “political polls have the potential to influence election results.” 

The recommendation follows last year’s record-low voter turnout for the Ontario election, with only 44 per cent of Ontarians casting a ballot, according to the post-election report. 

Eligible voters who made their way to the polls in the 2022 election, which became the second majority win for Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives, was the lowest in the province’s history. 

READ MORE: ‘They want to defund the police – don’t vote for them’: Premier Ford got involved in the mayoral race a week after saying he wouldn’t

Elections Ontario says survey data indicates polling played a role in the poor voter turnout.

Under “barriers to participation in the voting process” the report says, “many lost interest in the election due to early reports of one-sided results.” 

Leading up to voting day on June 2 last year, the report says 36 polls were published in the two weeks before voting day. 

In Ontario, the media is currently not permitted to report new opinion polls on election day

The report also recommends an extension on the 29-day official campaign period, by at least a week, as “Ontario has the largest number of registered voters, yet experiences one of the shortest election calendars in Canada.

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