voting
 

Just got the poll card through the door and wanted to tell you something that happened to me last year....

I had the usuall people calling round trying to convince me to vote for them and i had said that i wouldnt be voting(at the time i had college and work and tyler) so one guy says, fill in this form for a postal vote so you dont have to go down, i thought this was ok so said yeah....
I got the form, only it wasnt a postal vote application, it was a proxy vote application meaning that they would go and put my vote in for me!!

Luckily i read everything first and didnt send it off.

Just thought i would warn ppl!

Re: voting
 

Emamum what you should have done was report them to the returning officer at hyndburn about it. They may have made a mistake giving you a proxy form but you should still have reported it. The returning officer is normally the chief executive of the council. If you want a postal vote all you have to do is contact the returning officer at hyndburn and they will send a postal vote form out to you. Fill it in and return it by the date they say and then they will send you out a postal vote when the time comes which you return to the address on the form by voting day.

Re: voting
 

the guy fetched it with him and wanted me to fill it in there and then, obviously trying to rush me into not reading it... i said i was too busy at the time and he kept coming back

Re: voting
 

got my polling card last week!

and if anyone comes knocking on my door asking for my vote, i just laugh at them and shut the door!!...:D

Re: voting
 

Im glad im not knocking on your door then panther!!!! :D

Emamum if anyone tries to do the same again this year then what you need to do is ask them for their name, make a note of which party they are from and report them to the returning officer.

There are certain rules that people canvassing have to follow and if they dont follow them then they can get the party involved in trouble.

Basically he should have left form with you for you to fill it in at your leisure and for you to return it to the returning officer yourself. I have offered before to fill it in for someone and they signed it and i took it in for them but only with their say so.

Re: voting
 

Very concerned about this. If it's Labour/Hyndburn. I want to know about this right away. PLease PM privately. What ward was it?

Normally there are between 3 -12 proxy votes per ward. Never higher. Last year one climbed alarmingly to 20 and after checking it semed ok,

However in 2006 against Gayle, Peter Britcliffe had 44 proxy votes.

Re: voting
 

I thought you'd have to bring Britliffe into, scraping the barrel again Jones

Re: voting
 

I thought we were supposed to save cash, go green, cut down on carbon etc

So how come my voting card is twice the size it was - its now A5 - where before its always been a handy A6 size

twice the cost of paper........who decided that???? then I know not to give em my vote;)

Re: voting
 

Mines postcard sized. Mind you im in Rossendale.

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The Returning Officer

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I cant understand why they cant just print all the names on one piece of paper!!

just put a perforation line down to tear off each individual name :D

Re: voting
 

This is the sad part to me, it doesn't take long to go and cast a vote no matter which party you vote for, (or to make you ballot void if you don't agree to with any party), but the number of young people especially, that say, It's not worth it they are all the same etc, etc.

Please, get off your backsides and vote or nothing will change and if nothing changes we'll have nothing to argue about on accyweb!

Seriously though voting has only been allowed for the whole of the adult population for less than 100 years, a lot of people worked hard and long and made sacrifices so that we could all vote.

So, please make the effort this year and get yourself down to the Polling Station.

When did women get the vote in England?

Re: voting
 

My dad said to me when i was 17 he said that if you dont go and vote then you have no right to complain about the council/government. Even if you didnt vote for the one's who got in you still have the right then to complain. It doesnt take 2 mins to put your x in the box. Might take you longer to get to the polling station but what is 2mins out of your life.

Ive never missed voting yet - i promised him i would always vote unless i was took to hospital as an emergency. Most of the time mine is the first in the box anyway!!!

If you are going away there is always postal votes (you listening slinks and ginger) or if you want there are proxy votes where someone can go and vote for you.

Re: voting
 

Gotta agree, I've always used my vote, I think it's hypocritical not too, like Less says, you can't whinge about things if you haven't done your bit to change it.:rolleyes:

Re: voting
 

ok..... how annoyed would you all be if i said i'd never voted?

Re: voting
 

You have a choice vote or don't vote, I just think it's a shame that you waste one of your rights by not voting.
:(

(Don't come on here complaining about anything political though, after all it's probably your fault for not voting, whatever, it is that gave you a bee in your bonnet!)
:)

Re: voting
 

im gonna vote this year, and its not gonna be conservative or bloody labour!!!

Re: voting
 

at least you went and voted panther.

Re: voting
 

Is it Australia where its compusory to vote ? or get a fine , seems a good idea to me and think they have the elections on a Sunday to cut down on lame excuses . Not sure how they work it if you don't like any of the candidates listed , maybe they have a box "none of the above" , .... but then what happens when "none of the above" gets the most votes ?

Re: voting
 

My Granddad once told me a story. He was drunk, and it was not often he was drunk. Being Ukrainian, he had a tolerance to alcohol - though it was the only way I could find out about his, and my past. So I didnt mind that he had a few extra vodka's. He told me that in his hometown of Lviv, he'd been training to be a priest. That, in the small farming town where he grew up in the Ukraine, he didnt completely agree with the Russian Government at the time but no-one was what you could call militant. The odd grumble here and there.

Unfortunately, Army Group Central - with one million men, tanks etc, marched through the Ukraine - and my Granddad was forced into the Red Army.

He was put in charge of a machine gun post in north Turkey. One night, he and a few of his friends decided that the time was right to cross the line and defect - they couldnt stand the soviet government of the USSR. They tossed their magazines into no-mans-land and ran out of their trenches shouting in German "We surrender, please have mercy!" A German Officer met my Granddad halfway across. After looking them up and down for a few seconds, this raged band of unsuspecting Russian conscripts, he shouted to them "Stop!!". My Granddad said at that point he thought that was it, that he would be shot. That he would never raise a family. The German Officer directed him round a land mine that he was about to stand on, and into the trenches. There he gave him some schnapps an invited him to pick a record. His best friend was not so lucky, he got shot in the head on the way over.

I'm telling this tale in public because its the only one I can relate to. Its the only thing I ever managed to get my Granddad to tell me before he died. A tutor at college once reprimanded me for saying that if people didnt want to vote it was their choice. He said "People must vote, because our fathers have died so that they can". I replied "people can choose not to vote, because that is their choice, and thats what our fathers died for - and please Sir don't presume to lecture me on such a subject".

Just thought id share that.

Re: voting
 

My point is, irrespective of party politics, and we can all play party politics, the right to vote should also include the right not to vote. That idea that freedom of choice is at the centre of the right itself. Your right to choose, in every sense. If you're forced to vote, thats not freedom, thats a dictatorship. Im not encouraging people not voting, I think the more people are engaged in our political process, the richer it is, though freedom to choose should be just that.

Re: voting
 

I agree.

Personally I've always voted, but freedom should also mean we have the right not too as well.

I don't think enforced voting is a good idea.

However, educating people about politics, and what their vote means, is a good idea.

If I really couldn't decide who to vote for, I'd go and spoil my voting slip, because they are always counted, and at least my dissatisfaction would be offically noted.:D

Re: voting
 

I wouldn't have a problem, but then don't complain about the Council, County Council or Government, simple

Re: voting
 

That statement will get you **** rating from your peers.
(The asterix depict 4 Star).
"Garinda went to the polling station to keep the percentages up and spoil his ballot paper."
I would'nt allow anyone who came out with a statement like that to educate my pet worm

Re: voting
 

Why would anybody want a pet worm, and even more alarmingly want it educating :confused:

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There is a distinct shortage of cultural activity on the costa del sol?

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.

Re: voting
 

The little slips you complete are not referenced. Yes, all the rest of what you say is correct, you have a register number etc, but when you go into the little booth, you will have been given a slip with no identifying features on it. As such, someone could tell that you have voted, or at least been given a voting slip, but there is no way of knowing how you used that slip

Re: voting
 

The last time that I voted the ballot paper was torn off a pad and the counterfoil and ballot paper had a serial number on them. The clerk wrote that number against my name on the Electoral List.

Have a look on the 1st May 2008.

Re: voting
 

yes you are quite right JB, i noticed that many years ago, so when it comes down to it, it isnt a secret ballot at all, they know exactly who has voted for them

Re: voting
 

Thats quite interesting. Ive not noticed it myself, despite looking. I on purposely checked my paper last time I voted and there was nothing on it to identify me

Re: voting
 

That may well be.. but... Alicante is on the Costa Blanca.
Cultural Activity is buzzing in Ossy is it Margeret? :confused:

Re: voting
 

Gail has it all in hand :D
I have observed that Alicante is the site of the ancient roman town of Lucentum - so you could always go to bet on the chariot racing :D

Re: voting
 

Viva la Google....There is a fiesta in late July depicting the battle between the Moors and the Christians in La Villajoyosa...chariots and all.
I will check with Ladbrooks to see if they are taking bets....Thanks Margaret....I might win a few bob :hothothot

Re: voting
 

What happens to the ballot papers after the count is completed and agreed on?

Re: voting
 

I might have to vote Labour this time. Poor Collete must be worn out trying to dish the dirt on 5 Tory Cllrs all on her own.

Then again Brian did manage to finally get the changing rooms rebuilt on Harvey Street even though he alegedly burnt them down himself for the insurance money :D

Re: voting
 

You not seen it neil? When you go to the count and everything has been declared - then the votes are all put into a sealed bag with everything regarding that ward for that election and are then took to a secure place and stored for future reference. Oh and when the expenses for that election are put into the returning officer and have been verified by the returning officer then they join them.

Re: voting
 

How long are they kept for though, surely not indefinitely?

I wouldn't like to pick that sack up when they are eventually recycled.

Re: voting
 

Are you not going on who has the best chest this time?:D

Re: voting
 

I think its 10 years they are supposed to be kept for.

Will find out for you - that is if graham dont come on and tell you.

Re: voting
 

That was you who did that not me.

I voted they wrong way for that :eek::rolleyes::D

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That's slanderous.

Peter Britcliffe has a much better decolletage than Gayle, even before he stopped puffing.

Re: voting
 

Ok i was wrong!!!

Local elections - theyre kept for a year and then destroyed
European elections - theyre kept for 2 years and then destroyed
General elections - dont know what happens to them - they are shipped to government central.

And after they are sealed you need a court order to open the bags.

Re: voting
 

My vote was cast and it went like this.

I presented my Official Poll Card, complete with my number (SL2 658) on the register, to the clerk at the Polling Station.
As she checked my name off on her list, her colleague wrote my name on another list, alongside which was the pre-printed number of 02201.
She checked to see if she had the right voting slips pad, then removed a voting slip from it folded it in half and handed it to me.
With the voting slip folded in half she was able to check, without it looking obvious that she was doing so, that the number corresponded to the number on her sheet. And yes, you’ve guessed it - it was 02201.

So it would be possible for someone to find out how I, or anyone else, voted. Whether someone does is something that we are unlikely to ever find out, but the fact that it would be possible makes it UTTERLY AND TOTALLY WRONG and makes a nonsense of the claim that voting in this country is by SECRET ballot.

Re: voting
 

well i will go and vote later on

Re: voting
 

Are they open till ten still?

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Yes, it's ten o'clock tonight they close.

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Thanks have had a bad night will get a few hours kip and vote later.

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Set your aarm Bernie then you don't miss out:rolleyes:

Re: voting
 

Couldn't get to sleep so done and dusted:p