Once the polls have opened, the role of the media changes from what it was during the campaign period - and specific rules may be devised to govern this shift. In practice, the shift may have taken place earlier (see News Blackouts/'Reflection Period'), with an embargo placed on political campaign reporting, opinion poll reporting, direct access broadcasts or advertisements - or all of these.
The issues posed by a ban on reporting during the poll become proportionally more complex depending on how long the voting takes, as well as how large the country is. In the later case, if the electorate is voting across several time zones, this poses especially complex issues since results in one zone may become available before voting has finished in another.
In essence there are two issues at stake:
- Preserving the integrity of the electoral process and the security of the vote
- Ensuring that the untimely release of information does not influence the vote in any way
The first of these is more straightforward than the second. It is usually not difficult to strike a balance between allowing the media some sort of special access to report on the voting process, but ensuring that voters' secrecy and security is not breached. See Media Access to Polling Stations.
However, ensuring the maximum transparency and flow of information without improperly interfering with the process is more difficult, and a greater variety of approaches have been adopted. See Reporting the Vote.
