The not so secret vote
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Discussion

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

84 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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[redacted]

Hedders

24,460 posts

277 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
All though they deny it, I can't see that they would not use this information somehow...

Shuvi

889 posts

236 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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It's a secret ballot. All that has ever really meant is: The Monkeys at the stations, don't know how you vote.

Is this news?



Edited by Shuvi on Friday 9th April 07:39

Westy Pre-Lit

5,088 posts

233 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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Don't think they will be knocking on my door when out canvassing then. Last time I went to place my X I wrote ...All a bunch of thieving s ....across the slip.biggrin

Shuvi

889 posts

236 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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Westy Pre-Lit said:
Don't think they will be knocking on my door when out canvassing then. Last time I went to place my X I wrote ...All a bunch of thieving s ....across the slip.biggrin
That counts though. A spoiled vote is a vote.

The info isn't actually collected/collated. It would solve the unemployment issue if it was though, because it would take a couple of million people to do it in any meaningful time scale.

Hedders

24,460 posts

277 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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I thought we had invented machines that could 'read' these kind of documents decades ago!

I am sure you are right though Shuvi, the government would never want to create a database of information about us hehe


DSM2

3,624 posts

230 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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Hedders said:
I thought we had invented machines that could 'read' these kind of documents decades ago!

I am sure you are right though Shuvi, the government would never want to create a database of information about us hehe
Ha ha! Though there's a good chance they'd go and lose it then, in any case.

Mazda Baiter

37,069 posts

218 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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My Uncle is running for the Green Party paperbag

He was saying that the candidates get access to the data which tells them who voted and who didn't. This is taken from the list that is ticked off when you hand in your slip at the polling station.

He reckons that they have no access to "who voted for who" type data, just whether they turned up or not.

That doesn't mean to say that no-one is using the data, just that the incoming candidates have no access to it.

Surely the answer is to tear the number out of the corner of the voting slip, or would that spoil the vote?

Puggit

49,810 posts

278 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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Mazda Baiter said:
Surely the answer is to tear the number out of the corner of the voting slip, or would that spoil the vote?
If the election officers can distinguish a clear intention from the voting slip, then it is their obligation to record that intention. So yes, you can tear a corner off, and if the X is still obvious, the vote counts.

Pupp

12,972 posts

302 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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Mazda Baiter said:
My Uncle is running for the Green Party paperbag

He was saying that the candidates get access to the data which tells them who voted and who didn't. This is taken from the list that is ticked off when you hand in your slip at the polling station.

He reckons that they have no access to "who voted for who" type data, just whether they turned up or not.

That doesn't mean to say that no-one is using the data, just that the incoming candidates have no access to it.

Surely the answer is to tear the number out of the corner of the voting slip, or would that spoil the vote?
The track-back made possible by the counterfoil numbers and voters' numbers is only there to ensure there has been no fraud in the event an election court has to be convened (ie if an aggrieved candidate alleges people have committed the offence of personation).

Candidates and their agents are not given official information whilst the election is in progress about who has tendered their vote but tellers who work for candidates are able, and do, stand outside polling stations in order to ask people who they are and mark them off their own lists. Voters are not obliged to confirm this information to tellers and tellers are not employed by the returning officer. Tellers should not be allowed into polling stations (ie past the door of the room where the ballot box is) unless voting themselves, but candidates can come in to check proceedings (again, detailed information is not given although most will ask what the general turnout has been and will be told a very general answer)

Lack of serial number and the official mark applied by the presiding officer when the voting paper is issued will result in the vote being excluded at the count. Spoiled papers are just that; apart from the total being counted for purposes of verifying what's in the box is what has actually been issued (the single most important check), no-one takes any further notice of anything scrawled if it's not a clear vote.

Edited by Pupp on Friday 9th April 12:21

D-Angle

4,468 posts

272 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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Pupp said:
Candidates and their agents are not given official information about who has tendered their vote but tellers who work for candidates are able, and do, stand outside polling stations in order to ask people who they are and mark them off their own lists.
Yep, had this approach a couple of times when going to vote, the Lib Dems seem to be very hot on it for some reason. Take a note of people's numbers, check them on the electoral roll, and they have a mailing list of people who can be bothered to vote.

ninja-lewis

5,443 posts

220 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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Pupp said:
The track-back made possible by the counterfoil numbers and voters' numbers is only there to ensure there has been no fraud in the event an election court has to be convened (ie if an aggrieved candidate alleges people have committed the offence of personation)
Only if they don't lose the registers. *cough*Glenrothes*cough*Labour*cough.

Pupp

12,972 posts

302 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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ninja-lewis said:
Pupp said:
The track-back made possible by the counterfoil numbers and voters' numbers is only there to ensure there has been no fraud in the event an election court has to be convened (ie if an aggrieved candidate alleges people have committed the offence of personation)
Only if they don't lose the registers. *cough*Glenrothes*cough*Labour*cough.
Someone certainly made a mess of that but the official inquiry did not establish any malicious intent... do people still suspect it? Given the sheer administartive burden imposed by the legal framework, it's astonishing more of these errors don't occur.

Gaspode

4,167 posts

226 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
I don't know bout the BNP for certain, but I would expect so. For many years, up until 1979 at least, the identities of all people who voted for the communist party were collected by M5.

F i F

48,805 posts

281 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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Gaspode said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I don't know bout the BNP for certain, but I would expect so. For many years, up until 1979 at least, the identities of all people who voted for the communist party were collected by M5.
You'd have thought they'd have used something a bit more like a Transit van.

Pupp

12,972 posts

302 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Not quite correct. You need to be on the electoral roll to vote and that will result in a number being allocated to you. The card that is sent with this number on is just a reminder and there is no requirement to produce it or to cite the number. Just telling the presiding officer your name and address will result in a ballot paper being issued provided you are on the roll for the polling station you attend (assuming you don't have a postal vote and haven't appointed a proxy who has beat you to it).

Gaspode

4,167 posts

226 months

Friday 9th April 2010
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F i F said:
Gaspode said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I don't know bout the BNP for certain, but I would expect so. For many years, up until 1979 at least, the identities of all people who voted for the communist party were collected by M5.
You'd have thought they'd have used something a bit more like a Transit van.
rofl
My mistake, sorry! But then again, so few votes were actually going to the Communist Party of Great Britain in those days, I suspect they could have stuffed them in the glovebox of an M5 and got them back to Box 500 in double-quick time.

F i F

48,805 posts

281 months

Friday 9th April 2010
quotequote all
Gaspode said:
F i F said:
Gaspode said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I don't know bout the BNP for certain, but I would expect so. For many years, up until 1979 at least, the identities of all people who voted for the communist party were collected by M5.
You'd have thought they'd have used something a bit more like a Transit van.
rofl
My mistake, sorry! But then again, so few votes were actually going to the Communist Party of Great Britain in those days, I suspect they could have stuffed them in the glovebox of an M5 and got them back to Box 500 in double-quick time.
No worries it made me giggle though. Typos, yeah well we've all got the T shirt and fat fingers to prove it.