Canadians: ballot-eating during Federal elections is a crime!

Well, this is what happens when your country prints its election ballots on delicious smoked bacon. Boing Boing reader Dave says,

While looking for advanced polling information for the Canadian federal election in January, I stumbled upon this question on the Elections Canada FAQ page. Not yet able to find the penalty for such an offense, but will keep looking.

Snip from election code law:

Q: Is someone allowed to eat a ballot?

A: Eating a ballot, not returning it or otherwise destroying or defacing it constitutes a serious breach of the Canada Elections Act.

Link

Reader comment: Martin says,

Both incidences of ballot-eating happened in Alberta, where many of us are disheartened by how all but one or two of the province's twenty-eight ridings are easily won by the Conservatives in every federal election. Link to news report about the "Edible Ballot Society" in the 2000 election.

(Thanks, Roy!)