election. very urgent answer required

jimbms

diggerman123: Please tell me this question is a wind up just designed to spark a debate because I cannot for the life of me work out how anyone could believe a vote made on a legal ballot paper in pencil is not legal considering this is how it has been done for over a century.

nico26

jimbms wrote: »

diggerman123: Please tell me this question is a wind up just designed to spark a debate because I cannot for the life of me work out how anyone could believe a vote made on a legal ballot paper in pencil is not legal considering this is how it has been done for over a century.

Agree he's winding us all up.:j

Owain_Moneysaver

yellowmonkey wrote: »

Bit about pen and pencil half way down
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8661984.stm

We got to the polling station, only to find the store of ballot papers had been thrown out by the cleaners the night before

Bleedin' 'eck! We (I was a presiding officer yesterday but this is not an official response) have to collect (and sign for) the ballot papers the day before, and are not supposed to leave them unattended. Someone once left them in his car and the car got nicked overnight.

There are advantages to pencils:

- they're cheap
- the quick and easy to resharpen
- they don't make inky marks on people's clothes
- if someone writes something rude in the booth, it can be rubbed out quickly.
- sharpening them gives the clerk something to do when it's quiet

The ballot boxes are sealed at the start of the poll, witnessed by the polling clerk, any election agents and police officers present. Formerly sealing wax was used, there are now multiple (serially numbered) plastic seals. At the end of the poll, the slot is sealed similarly, and election agents are also entitled to add their own seal (one particular party has a reputation for doing this). They can then inspect the seals when the box is opened at the count centre.

As rubbers are not provided in the voting booth, and any papers spoiled by a voter are cancelled in front of the voter, if there were quantities of erased-and-reused papers at the count this would be unusual.

Police attendance at polling stations would be decided locally, we had roaming officers and a phone hotline to the police's election control office.

Owain_Moneysaver

paulofessex wrote: »

I recall one year getting a letter from the party l voted for, thanking me for my vote, so since then l realised that there is a way they can tell who you voted for.

They can't, but I think they do get lists of who voted for limited purposes. If you are registered with a party as a supporter they can match it up against their supporter lists. This assumes you voted for that party.

This is also why agents try and get elector numbers outside the poll, so they can chase up any supporters who are yet to vote. They do not get told whether someone has voted or not during the poll, that would be illegal.

Darksun

paulofessex wrote: »

I recall one year getting a letter from the party l voted for, thanking me for my vote, so since then l realised that there is a way they can tell who you voted for.

I know! It's like that time I saw a sign that said "Thank you for not smoking", and I knew they were watching me, because I wasn't smoking!

jimbms

All this is assuming you can actually get into the polling station to vote, which it seems many voters could not due to failure by councils to ensure adequate facilities. Isn't is suspicious that virtually every location this happend in was a Labour seat and run council.

Timalay

yellowmonkey wrote: »

Bit about pen and pencil half way down

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8661984.stm

Love this question "I'M A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. CAN I VOTE?"

qetu1357

fleagle21 wrote: »

The council take on people here especially for the task, brill money too, last year was about £12 per hour as far as I know.

BBC said last night that in Gordon Brown's seat the counters were getting £200 each!

mippy

skid112 wrote: »

oh dear, so they all know i voted 'none of the above'? after promising them all my vote. I guess next election I can look forward to having all the lying oops typo wonderful candidates round again lol

You can't vote 'none of the above', unless you mean the goon who changed his name by deed poll.

trisontana

Regarding the police. I know somebody who has worked in a polling station for the last two years. She said that they were visited a couple times by the police just to see "everything was going OK". This might be an exception, mainly because the polling station was fairly isolated, and it was two women working on their own.