Canada: Is vote swapping legal? | Global News

Some Canadians are getting creative in an effort to make their vote count this election. They’re “vote swapping” and a Facebook page called Vote Swap Canada is promoting the idea in an effort to defeat Conservative leader Stephen Harper. The idea is that if you don’t think your preferred party will win your riding, you can go online and swap your vote with another person in a different riding. Political scientists think it could have an impact on this year’s outcome, but Elections Canada is warning against the idea.

United Kingdom: With election race tight, Britons turn to vote-swapping strategy | The Globe and Mail

Amy Herbert has never met Robert Knight, but on Thursday she will go to a polling station in southwest England and – acting against her own political beliefs – cast a ballot for Mr. Knight’s preferred party, the Liberal Democrats. She’ll do so trusting that Mr. Knight, an ordinary voter like her, will reciprocate by marking his own ballot for the party she really supports, the Labour Party, in his own constituency. Thursday’s election in the United Kingdom is unlike any of those held before it. Every polling firm says the result is too close to call, and a hung Parliament is considered all but a certainty. At the end of an almost six-week campaign, few were daring Wednesday to predict what the country’s next government will look like. With the race so tight, voters are being pressured to vote tactically – that is, to cast their ballots with one eye on the candidates in their local constituencies, and the other on the big picture of how the each race could affect who becomes prime minister.

United Kingdom: Does ‘vote swapping’ work? | BBC

Vote-swapping websites seem to be gaining traction on social media. But what makes people swap votes, and will it really make a difference to the election result? Jodie Holland and Dr Tim Killeen don’t know each other. But they’ve made a pact. On 7 May, they will walk into polling stations in different constituencies and vote for the party the other wants to win. In doing so, both believe it will boost the chances of the party they want in power.