Robin Wilton's esoterica

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05 May · Thu 2005

Secret Ballot? Not in England!

Greetings once again from the UK, where I have just been flexing my democratic muscle. Just like last time, I was angered and depressed to see that my vote is not secret; that is, every ballot paper contains information which makes it possible to see who cast the vote on it. Here's the system: every eligible voter is sent a Poll Card notifying them of their polling station, which elections they are being invited to vote in, and some voting instructions. On my card is my name and address, a mystery 8-digit number, and a further code which is boldly labelled Number on Register. In my case (as my anonymity is shot to hell already...) this is IJ1-829. So, I arrive at the polling station and tell the monitoring officer my name and address. She crosses me off on the voting roll (so, one person, one vote...), and says to the person with the ballot papers "829". The ballot-slip person then writes "829" on the counterfoil of a ballot paper. Also on the counterfoil (and the ballot paper) is the number "80665". It is therefore a simple matter to cross-reference any ballot slip with its counterfoil, retrieve the Elector Number and look the voter up on the electoral roll. How democratic is that? I am forced to wonder, for instance, whether every voter in the recent elections in Zimbabwe could be similarly identified. This is 2005, for goodness' sake! It should not be beyond the wit of the electoral commission to implement a system which preserves the integrity of the poll and the anonymity of the voter! The current system fails to ensure my privacy, and gratuitously collects more data than is needed to fulfil the intended purpose. I'm not going to tell you how I voted, by the way. Not because it's a secret, but because you can probably find out for yourself. There must be a better way...

Posted by racingsnake @ 07:10 AM GMT+00:00 [ Comments [2] ]

Comments:

Nice article! I have replied at length here....

Critically, the vote with your polling number, may have been cast by someone else.

Posted by Dave Levy on May 09, 2005 at 09:16 AM GMT+00:00 #

I completely agree and have felt this way for some time. Trouble is, our government seems to be obsessed with collecting data about us they do not necessarily need. Online voting will probably be along shortly, which will reduce the visibility of the cross-referencing process but increase the ease with which it can be performed. Personally I do not vote these days. I hear the arguments that people have shed blood for my voting rights, but until the ballot is truly secret, I'm afraid that blood was spilt in vain. Unfortunately, the semi-secret ballot is in no danger of becoming truly secret. Yes, I know we're told this cross-referencing process you speak of never takes place but everyone has their price. I'm sure the government would sell the information to someone if they bid high enough.

Posted by Secret Ballot on March 22, 2006 at 05:54 PM GMT+00:00 #

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