Elections

[poliphilo]

Today we have elections for local councils and the European Parliament. The Government has tried to boost the turn-out by experimenting with a postal vote in certain areas. Our area- the North West- was added to the experiment late in the day, with the result that lots of mistakes have been made; ballot papers were posted to the wrong areas and some ballots never got posted at all.

There have also been accusations of vote rigging. Party agents have been knocking on doors in Pakistani and Bangladeshi areas and offering to "help" illiterate residents fill in their papers. There's even a story been reported about an employer who threatened to sack his workers unless they voted Labour.

Like many others, I'm treating the whole thing as a referendum on the War in Iraq.

Comments

[balirus.livejournal.com]

For this November's U.S. elections, as many as 28% of Americans - 50 million people will use "touch screen" voting machines. That these machines have a history of being unreliable and unsecure is a big problem. What's worse, electronic voting fails to provide an auditable trail.

If it's as close an election as it's looking to be, e-voting errors may decide the election rather than the votes cast. And with no verifiable record that can be used in a recount, there may be a bit of hell raised.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's worrying. Seems to me like the old low-tech way of voting remains the safest and best.