h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>In polling stations your name has a number against it which is the number of the ballot paper you put your cross on.<

Are you sure about that? I just voted, and the ballot paper I was given was just the top one off a pad of ballot papers.

Well one thing seems to be right ..

"Hidden" .. you're not supposed to tell anybody else who you're voting for at the polling station .. to prevent arguments I suppose ..

That's what a chap at work said this morning when we were chatting about it. Some more feed back from fellow voters would be interesting to see if it's just postal vote which aren't anonymous.

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

From the list of things one can do in a polling station:-

"IT'S MY FIRST TIME VOTING. CAN I TAKE A PHOTO?
No. British democracy works on the basis of a *****secret ballot*****. For that reason the media are banned from filming, taking photographs or reporting from inside the polling station. The same applies to individuals. Don't be tempted to take a picture - you'll be asked to delete it and told not to do it again. "


It's not a secret ballot as how any postal voter voted can be easily found out if someone wanted to.

>> Betty, FT you say? A newspaper ruled by Murdoch doesn´t have much credit for me. <<

The FT is owned by Pearsons, and is one of the most respected financial newspapers in the world. Maria, you need to get your head out of the sand, this *is* happening in Spain. In many ways Spain is worse than Greece merely due to the comparative sizes of their economies. This is why Germany is so keen to stop Greece from imploding...the knock-on effects will be felt in larger economies.

RF

Warner - you're not allowed to use the BBC messageboards to say "Vote for ...whoever". It's called electioneering. Most here figured that out and use reasoned posts designed to explain why they are voting a certain way. They seek to persuade and win the argument through reason.

Not by saying "Vote for X" you wazzock

Betty
Thanks .. I realised that before it disappeared .. a momentarily lapse of reason, I'm afraid

3Dots,

I work for a local authority. Postal votes have always had numbers on, as long as I've been involved in the process. Ballot papers at the polling station are also numbered.

I haven't heard the word 'wazzock' used for ages. Thank you.

Thanks for that.

So, British democracy is not based on a truly secret ballot then...but then again British democracy is not a true democracy so there you go.

Yes, but is it possible to identify the papers?

Dr Zen


Yes. From what my work colleague said there is a number against your name on the register that is there in the polling station. You are given the number paper linked to your name.

Postal vote:

You get:

1) a white envelope that everything is sent back in.

2) a piece of paper with your name and ballot paper number on which you sign to say it is you. and that goes in the white envelope.

3) a brown envelope with teh ballot paper number printed on it.

4) the ballot paper with the ballot paper number printed on the back of it.

You make your cross or whatever on the (numbered) ballot paper. You put that ballot paper in the brown envelope (with the ballot paper number printed on it)

You put that in with the signed paper with your name (and the ballot paper number on it) in the white envelope.

You then post that off.

One presumes that the white envelope is opened. The signed paper is removed and checked to see that you have signed your name against the ballot paper number to say that is your vote.

The brown envelope is then opened by whomever and that vote is counted pretty much there and then as I know a Labour candidate (who controls the labour Twitter stuff) Twittered(sic) that they were in the lead based on postal votes last week...it is illegal to disclose this information.

Hence postal votes are not kept to be counted after the whole polls close tonight but are counted in advance and it seems people do know the numbers.

So, yes, the way you voted can be linked back to yourself.

The current government regime may not do much with that information if they had it however other previous governments may well have done. One only has to look at the Commie witch hunts in the US not too many decades ago to see how such information could be used.

It's about ensuring cohersion or use of such data is not possible whatever the political climate. Just because we have relatively benign government at the moment, who only want ID cards with loads of info on, motorway cameras that can record and store licence plates for the police to use etc it's just anotehr step for a less benign government to want to know our political leanings that we need true secrecy.

And we have't mentioned the secret services who could use that info to profile us further.

Maybe I am being too paranoid at the moment and 'it wouldn't happen' these days however in the US I believe the government wanted to know or have the ability to find out what books people take from libraries etc...land of the free.

Yes worse case scenarios...but that's why we have certain things set-up in case the worst creeps upon us. The anti-terrorism laws are being used in ways that it was never created for because it can be etc...

warner??? why the sudden concern???

isn't there an islamist candidate standing where you live???

>IT'S MY FIRST TIME VOTING. CAN I TAKE A PHOTO?<

That'll be interesting then for me, because I plan to take a pic of my ballot paper for an art project I'm doing about daily life here. I plan to go in the booth and take a quick snap of the blank paper, and then play around with it later in photoshop.. Of course the flash will go off and they might notice..but it'll be too late by then. But I'm a bit nervous because they always seem to have a gaggle of very large and mouthy women sitting at the desk in my station.

If the worst comes to the worst I'll just do a drawing of it from memory when I get in. Actually.....thinking about it...that might be far more interesting. I'll try both.

Effers, just ask the nice people at the polling station if you can have a couple of spare forms.

RF

and this will be the last time.
RF,
Let me be suspicious about the FT. I don´t deny the data about the present situation, but I critize the intention of negative predictions, and for me –although I ´d have to read that article*, negative comments about the future of Spain make me jump after what happened last Tuesday in the stock market of Madrid ( and in other European capitals too) Behind that fall-down was a malicious rumour about a hypotetical rescue of Spanish economy by the EU and the IMF because Spain was in a similar situation to Greece. Then came european political and economical authorities to say that all was absolutely false and that Spain has nothing to do with Greece.

Who made those rumours ignored a few positive data, just from April: for first time since last July, the rate of jobless went down; the number of people paying the NHS went up; the trust of the cosumer raised up to 5.5%.
But those data meant nothing to those behind the rumours , those agencies which have been lying, or putting softer, making wrong predictions about Lehman Brothers, Goldam Sachs (which advised the Greek (conservative then) goverment to falsify the Greek economical data) etc.

FT said last February that Spain was similar to Greece, again, the stock market went down. Then the Minister of Economy visited London and told them about Spanish plans, etc. They change those words a few days later.

about Murdoch, but my point wasn´t critize the FT , but to point to those speculator and to anyone that can help them, whether they intend it or not(FT?) with their game , where only those wild speculators get profit at the expenses of many others.



*but I´m not going to do it now, actually I shouldn´t be here posting but lurking or studying my exams. But this topic boils my blood.

A work colleague in his late 40's has just asked me whether this is a secret ballot as he saw the official writing something on the stub of his ballot paper.

The official said the papers are numbered so that if they lose a box they know which ones have been lost.

However...it aint a secret ballot...

Effers, can't you turn off the flash, set the exposure a little bit longer and stand very still?

My camera has this neat James Bond setting which doesn't use a flash, automatically sets the exposure and stores the picture to internal memory so that, if the enemy catches me I can turn over the flash card and walk away with the important pictures still in the camera.

Effers

Take a torch in to give you the lighting level you require then the flash shouldn't go off.

And/or cover the flash up.

Effers - a cunning plan.

Before leaving for the polling station, construct a pastiche ballot paper from knitted tofu and organic pasta. Write in large letters "I vote for Harriet Harperson" (or whatever socialist feminist lights your candle). Carefully fold this and conceal it under your poncho in your dungarees pocket.

Once in the polling booth, switch the real ballot paper with your ingenious facsimile.

Make your escape with your prize hidden beneath your Che Guevara beret.

You go sister! Stick it to da Man.