OK, you already know that the current paper ballot system in the UK is not one of my favourite things; it has a simple mechanism for indexing all the ballot papers, as a result of which every vote cast can be traced back to the person who cast it. It is not a secret ballot. But don't let me get on that hobby horse again.
You also know that I have my reservations about the proposals for a UK National Identity Scheme, with biometrics, cards, and a logically centralised aggregation of identity data.
Picture my joy, then, when Dave Walker (peace be upon him) let me know that there are plans for voters to have to identify themselves... using their national ID card.
It may well be, of course, that ID Cards are a solution looking for a problem, and that the current paper ballot is a problem looking for a solution... but whatever the shortcomings of the paper ballot system, I find it extremely unlikely that ID Cards are the answer.
Not least - as the Register article lucidly points out - there's little sense in pushing for an expensive technical infrastructure for votes cast in person, and simultaneously pushing for more people to cast postal votes (the idea being to add to the total number of people voting, not switch them from one mechanism to another).
Perhaps what they envisage is that people who have an ID card but submit a postal vote will do the electoral equivalent of a 'card not present' transaction. That faint 'shuddering' you hear is probably the sound of an object being defeated.
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