VANCOUVER - B.C.'s Liberal Party violated the province's Election Act with election day posts on the social networking site Twitter, but the party won't be punished.
Kenn Faris of Elections B.C. says a caller alerted his office Tuesday morning that the party was posting messages on its Twitter account.
Faris said that is a violation of section 233 of the act, which prohibits candidates, parties and third-party sponsors from advertising on election day.
"The folks in our electoral finance area phoned the contact we have at the B.C. Liberal Party and told them that they were contravening the act and asked them to stop 'tweeting' and they did," Faris said.
Because the party acted quickly and erased its posts, Faris said the Liberals will not be punished.
Violating section 233 of the act carries a maximum fine of $10,000 or imprisonment for up to one year.
The section says "an individual or organization must not publish, broadcast or transmit to the public election advertising in an electoral district on general voting day before the close of all of the voting stations in the electoral district."
Faris said the Liberals appear to be the only B.C. party to have violated the act.
"From what we can see, the B.C. Liberals were the only ones that were doing this," he said.
He said new media can make election advertising more difficult to police.
"We certainly don't have the time nor resources to be scouring or monitoring for online advertising," he said.
