Re: voting
My “Official Poll Card” arrived the other day and I will be using it come the 1st May 2008, as I do every polling day. Who gets my vote remains to be seen, as I have no idea who the candidates are in my ward. But if there is a Labour candidate s/he will be ignored, as will the Tory candidate and the Liberal one. Hopefully there will be other candidates and if there are one of them will get my vote. If there aren’t I will have a problem. How I resolve it remains to be seen.
However the real point of this and any other polls is the alleged secrecy of the ballot. There is nothing secret about it.
My name is on the Electoral Register with an allocated number, which also appears on the “Official Poll Card”. At the polling station my name appears on a list, with that number, and the official writes alongside my name the number of the ballot paper before handing it over to me. OK! I can go into a booth that is shielded from prying eyes to cast my vote but that is the only bit that is secret.
My choice is registered on the ballot paper that has a unique number that has been written against my name on the Electoral List. Thus it is simplicity itself for someone in government to find out which way I and EVERYONE ELSE votes.
I firmly believe that there is a database (and has been for years) that lists every single eligible voter and how those voters voted in both local and national elections. And no I cannot prove it.
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