Publication of polls is permitted in the United Kingdom until polling stations open. In the days before polling, parties and the media are free to discuss campaign issues, publish polls, and disseminate candidate statements, as long as publication of this information is prohibited from undemocratically changing the sentiment of citizens to vote. Not considered for.
The law prohibits the publication of any announcement to voters during the voting period informing them of their choice, as well as any prediction of results based on this information. The Office of Communications (Ofcom) is in charge of enforcing rules aimed at ensuring that coverage of elections is fair. In case of non-compliance, the Representation of the People law envisages fines of up to 5,000 pounds (about 5,700 euros) and jail terms of up to six months. Lucas Font (London)
Polls can be published up to 48 hours before an election in France. Electoral law prohibits the publication of studies on voting intentions on the day of reflection, which almost always falls on a Saturday, and before the polls close on the same day of the election, at eight o’clock in the afternoon. This rule applies to both presidential and legislative, municipal, European or regional elections. Despite this, the Belgian or Swiss media, which are not governed by French electoral law, continue to publish polls on the day of reflection and during the election.
This norm has been implemented in the neighboring country since 2002. Until then, the rules were the same as in Spain: electoral studies were prohibited during the last week before voting. Due to a sentence by the Court of Cassation the authorities decided to change it. The French counterpart of the Supreme Court held that this limit was contrary to freedom of expression. Enrique Bonnet (Paris)
There are no restrictions on televised polls in Germany, which would be “sovereign” of election night in some way. It is prohibited to forward the results of the voting when exiting the urn and before the premises close on Election Day. These elections will be broadcast on public and private television, as well as digital media, one minute after schools close, even if voters in some are waiting to vote – they can do so if they have before. Waiting in line from the moment you are inside the premises. Until the first actual vote estimates, about an hour later, they will be the main indicator of the results and are usually quite accurate, especially as they are broadcast separately by the first and second national public television channels, ARD and ZDF.
It should be remembered that there is no day of reflection in Germany. Most parties celebrate their closing campaigns with central rallies on the Friday before Election Day. But on the same Saturday, on the eve of the election, the leader or candidate still searches for his voters in his own district with acts in a reduced format. Marina Ferrer (Berlin)
In the Transalpine country, the law is apparently very strict in the matter of electoral elections. As established, the dissemination of polls of any kind is prohibited from 15 days before the election and until the day (or days) when the polls close. Nevertheless, since 2013, various web pages have been discovered that circumvent this prohibition by writing the data as if they were bogus horse races, a papal conclave or votes under other fictitious names, and they are still being used by each party during that time. period. In addition, it is also common to broadcast elections held abroad more or less carefully, and which is possible to achieve with a little skill. Italian law also does not prohibit pollsters from continuing to vote past 15 days, it only bars the press from publishing them, so parties continue to ask them to make their own decisions and deal with potential damages. Irene Savio (Rome)
In the United States, where the publication of polls is considered an integral part of free speech, there is no law that prohibits the conduct or publication of opinion polls at the federal or state level prior to elections, confirmed in an email Is performed. Timothy Johnson of the National Center for Opinion Research at the University of Chicago and who will chair the World Association for Public Opinion Research between 2021 and 2022.
The only restrictions in the country affect exit polls, which are held on the same day as elections, and those are not banned either. According to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures, six of the country’s 50 states regulate the distance from the polling station where these elections can be held. They are Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Missouri, Montana and Wyoming, and in the latter case, this imposition of physical distance does not affect polls conducted by the media.
