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Last night, they were talking about voting as I lay in the bath listening drowsily to Radio 4. About the drop in turnout and the plans to revitalise it using postal voting, and possibly text message and online voting in the near future. Before I go on to ramble about my thoughts on this, I've got a poll for you to fill out.
[Poll #216990]
See whenever I listen to one of these pieces there seems to be an underlying assumption that the reason people didn't vote is that it's too difficult for them somehow. They can't cope with dragging themselves all the way to the polling booth. And I'm sure this is true for some people. It's just not true for any of the people I've talked to about their non-voting*. And no-one ever quotes the statistics, making me wonder if there are even any. Perhaps they just don't support the "it's too difficult" thesis.
To cap it all, I'm pretty suspicious of some of the alternative means of voting that have been suggested. There doesn't seem to be any way for me, the voter, to be positive that my phone number has been stripped from any text vote I make for example. At least at the polling booth I can make a visual check that there's no identifying marks on my slip. The same goes for online voting as there will have to be a way to authenticate me as me before I cast my vote - otherwise I could potentially vote several times or vote online and then at the polling booth later. Even postal voting has its risks - after all, I could easily collect and complete Alex's vote before he's woken up enough to notice it - although it is now pretty well established as an alternate means to vote. The risk is of a different nature here though - there's more possibility for electoral fraud, but anonymity is still preserved. The trouble is, no-one gives us the details. Trials of text-message voting and online voting have been postponed for the moment, but it's not an idea that's going to go away, because the politicians will do anything rather than believe that we just don't want any of them.
*If the BBC are allowed to draw sweeping conclusions from vox-pops of about 3 people in the street then so am I, damn it!
[Poll #216990]
See whenever I listen to one of these pieces there seems to be an underlying assumption that the reason people didn't vote is that it's too difficult for them somehow. They can't cope with dragging themselves all the way to the polling booth. And I'm sure this is true for some people. It's just not true for any of the people I've talked to about their non-voting*. And no-one ever quotes the statistics, making me wonder if there are even any. Perhaps they just don't support the "it's too difficult" thesis.
To cap it all, I'm pretty suspicious of some of the alternative means of voting that have been suggested. There doesn't seem to be any way for me, the voter, to be positive that my phone number has been stripped from any text vote I make for example. At least at the polling booth I can make a visual check that there's no identifying marks on my slip. The same goes for online voting as there will have to be a way to authenticate me as me before I cast my vote - otherwise I could potentially vote several times or vote online and then at the polling booth later. Even postal voting has its risks - after all, I could easily collect and complete Alex's vote before he's woken up enough to notice it - although it is now pretty well established as an alternate means to vote. The risk is of a different nature here though - there's more possibility for electoral fraud, but anonymity is still preserved. The trouble is, no-one gives us the details. Trials of text-message voting and online voting have been postponed for the moment, but it's not an idea that's going to go away, because the politicians will do anything rather than believe that we just don't want any of them.
*If the BBC are allowed to draw sweeping conclusions from vox-pops of about 3 people in the street then so am I, damn it!
no subject
Date: December 8th, 2003 08:45 am (UTC)From:However, if there was a proper RON option - which resulted in nominations reopening if it won, a specific 'abstain' option, no penalty for spoiling one's ballot paper and the right to campaign to encourage others to one of the above three things (seriously - in one country (I think it was Germany) someone was sucessfully prosecuted for encouraging others to spoil their ballots, and even though completing ballots like that was perfectly lawful, it was unlawful for him to encourage others to do so) then I could just about live with it.
no subject
Date: December 19th, 2003 05:51 am (UTC)From:The reason I think it could be a potentially good thing is that it would prevent politicians from hiding behind the excuse that the reason voters didn't turn out is that its too difficult and that they're happy with the status quo. I find it really hard to believe that's true, but theres no way to prove it as things stand.