There was some talk about voting machines the other day with regards an AV voting system and I think they're long overdue.
To say that the mechanism in the UK is archaic is a gross understatement. It's 10 am on Friday as I write and the polls closed here a full twelve hours ago. We're talking about the count for a poxy local election, probably with a very low turnout and with the count for the AV vote not even due to start until 4 pm.
As I write there is still no result announced for our local election. Compare this to France where they hold a national election and many more millions of votes are cast. The polls shut at 6 pm and they pretty much know the national result by 8 pm. Considering that it's a manual count that's fantastic.
One thing that really surprised me when voting yesterday was that I was expected to cast my vote using a pencil to mark the spot. Now call me cynical but the last time I looked it was fairly easy to rub out a pencil mark.
Even in less well advanced nations they make it more difficult than that.
Added to that, nobody asked me for ID. So as long as you know someone else's name and your pretty sure that they're not going to vote then you could turn up and vote in their place. What a shambles.
When I'm in charge mes braves you won't even have to turn out to vote cos you'll do exactly as I gently suggest.
Hello Alex:
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what we thought yesterday having voted in the Referendum! How easy it would be to rub out the pencil and change the result. Let us not be cynical, but perhaps that is why counting is not due to start until 4pm.
In Hungary where we live for most of our time, and where we do not have a vote, things are done entirely differently! Rather as you say of France.
We have Followed.
The system may be archaic, but UK were able to slice 3 weeks off the time taken to elect a recent US president ?
ReplyDeletePeter