election. very urgent answer required

BillTrac

Actually I took my daughter with me as it was her first time voting.She had told me her boyfriend had messed up his voting slip and had to be given another.

SHE managed to mess hers up and the presiding officer gave her an eraser!!...:rotfl:

And you can vote for none of the above. Either mess up your slip by voting for more than one candidate or don't vote for any. They cannot tell if you have put an X on the slips

mippy

But you're not 'voting' - it's a spoiled ballot and it doesn't count. It always strikes me as an enormous waste of time to do this as nobody cares what's written. If you don't like what the main parties do, protest by voting for an independent, or not voting and standing yourself next time.

dzug1

Equaliser123 wrote: »

much lower chance of fraud....

Not actually true - it makes little difference to an individual committing fraud and makes it much easier for the system to be doctored behind the scenes to misrecord votes without anyone noticing. Finding a 'secure' solution that would be usable by average Joe Public is more difficult than you would think and is one of the reasons that the system has changed little in 100+ years

dzug1

BillTrac wrote: »

Totally secret voting of course...........they record your personal voting number aganst the number on the slips they give you. They record the number of the slips.

How the hell is this secret?

ie..number JC.0000 is so and so. Ballet paper was given to the person holding the reference JC.0000.

So they know exactly who voted for who.

The evidence as to who voted for who is sealed up in an envelope by the Presiding Officer at the end of the poll.

That envelope can only be opened on the order of a High Court judge.

So unless you are totally paranoid about 'them' ignoring that requirement you don't really have any worry.

And as another poster has said, actually matching them up would be a massive task.

viktory

Equaliser123 wrote: »

Screw the pencil

Who counts the votes? Students?

The count is carried out, in the main, by LA employees. We are scrutinised constantly while verifying and sorting the votes. We are allowed nothing at the count table except paperclips and rubber bands. If the count is out - even by one - we have to recount.

There is no way we can secretly change/hide/eat the votes.

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.

I got paid £140 and was on site from 9.15am - 5am. It was unusual to go on so late though, normally the count is done by about 2am. We also got free food and drink (tea, coffee, toasted sandwiches, baguettes, crisps, cake, chocolate, fizzy drinks etc). Oh and a free 'Count team' t-shirt

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

The few spoiled ballot papers we saw made me laugh - people going out of their way to go to a polling station to make a big, bold statement on their ballot paper - and no one cares! What a waste of time.

Equaliser123

dzug1 wrote: »

Not actually true - it makes little difference to an individual committing fraud and makes it much easier for the system to be doctored behind the scenes to misrecord votes without anyone noticing. Finding a 'secure' solution that would be usable by average Joe Public is more difficult than you would think and is one of the reasons that the system has changed little in 100+ years

Fraud in respect of electronic voting would have to be on a massive scale. A correctly designed and implemented electronic system has to be on any analysis far, far better than a load of paper with X's in boxes which have to be counted.

Would be far more easily adapted to different electoral systems as well.

BillTrac

dzug1 wrote: »

The evidence as to who voted for who is sealed up in an envelope by the Presiding Officer at the end of the poll.

That envelope can only be opened on the order of a High Court judge.

So unless you are totally paranoid about 'them' ignoring that requirement you don't really have any worry.

And as another poster has said, actually matching them up would be a massive task.

No I am not paranoid, just seems weird that all the secrecy surrounding you actually putting the cross next to your choice, when all the time IF they wanted, your choice is there for anyone who wanted to/had access to see.

I wouldn't have a problem voting verbally. Don't care who knows how I voted

The_One_Who

Equaliser123 wrote: »

Really don't know why an electronic system hasn't been introduced yet. Results in seconds, vastly more accurate, much lower chance of fraud....

It worked so well in the last Scottish elections...

lazer

personally i don't see how there could ever be a need for anyone to know who someone else voted for. Why can't they just give you a voting slip with no identification on it other than a number identifying the polling station?

As for spoiling a vote - that is the best way to register your disappointment, not voting for someone you don't actually want into government, the independent may not be standing for the policys you want - so why give them a mandate by voting for them?

Equaliser123

The_One_Who wrote: »

It worked so well in the last Scottish elections...

Sounds to me like a) they bought a carp system; b) lessons learnt will make a better system; and c) can you think of any problems that have existed with the current (paper) system....