Election Day media/social media laws

Pretty good summary from Russell Brown:
http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/the-solemnity-of-the-day/

Basically, from midnight Friday till close of polls, it's a crime to publish any statement that could influence another voter.

That applies to canvassing, hoardings, wearing a tshirt advertising a political party (certain election day workers like scrutineers are allowed to wear a rosette AFAIK), publishing anything in the media, on radio or TV (publishing things like "polling places are busy, John Key just voted at his local polling place etc is fine, but nothing about policy etc), or as we've seen now, on FB, Twitter or any online thing. You could face up to a $20k fine.

It's a serious matter, it's nothing remotely to do with free speech or anything like that, it's been law since roughly 1905, and is all to do with (as Brown's blog and the articles he links to mention) protecting the solemnity of the day. Basically, don't be a dick and let people go about their voting in peace.

Possibly a good idea to lock the election threads on Saturday?

Really?? thats totally interesting. So do they have to take down all the election signs on the side of the road by then also?

yep

Yep, you can encourage people to vote, but not specify any political party preference on the day.

yeah, which makes australian elections feel totally weird.

People campaigning outside of the polling booths!

Yup, they too all have to be down by midnight. Local electorate workers go pretty hard all night Friday.