MORE VOTE RIGGING?

Here's a depressingly unsurprising story from the Surrey Advertiser.


It looks like there's a strong possibility that there's been some vote rigging going on in Woking, in relation to the recent local elections.  Here are some choice quotes from the story:

"As election fever swept the borough last week, some individuals who visited polling stations to vote in Maybury and Sheerwater were told they had already voted by post."

“I saw a young Asian woman going in to vote and she was told she had already voted by post. She told them she did not ask for a postal vote and that she hadn’t voted."

“She said it was the second year running that this had happened and that she had been questioned about her vote."

“The big question is, if this happened last year, why was something not done?”

Possibly because doing something about it that would be effective would involve reversing government policy?  The government's been encouraging large scale use of postal voting in an attempt to improve the turnout figures at elections.  They think the fact that they were voted into power by a small minority of the population undermines their legitimacy.  This is a good point, as large numbers of people seem to think that most MPs are illegitimate.  But how is anyone supposed to have any confidence in an electoral process that practically encourages fraud?  Postal voting is wide open to tampering - it should be a rarely-used exception to the general rule that if you want a say in who governs the country you should take the trouble to get down to the polling station and vote.  And anyone who does go out to vote shouldn't have to face the possibility of being told they've already voted - otherwise democracy becomes a sick joke.
8.5.08 20:10
 
Latest entries: I'm Back!, Griffins Never Rest, The Libertarian Party's First Election Campaign - The Results, Gordon Brown's Downfall - The Prequel, Words of Wisdom from Ted Nugent, The Last Post