Slugger O'Toole: Is the secret ballot really secret?

This means that after the election documentary information is in existence which will disclose who voted for which particular party in the constituency. The count by the returning officer's officials leaves all votes for each candidate in separate bundles, which are then placed in paper sacks with special labels and seals supplied by Her Majesty's Stationary Office and forwarded to the Clerk of the Crown in London.
It is possible for the serial numbers of these ballot papers to be matched against those retained on the counterfoil stubs which disclose the electoral registration number—and therefore name and address of citizens and how they voted—which are similarly forwarded to the Clerk of the Crown in London. Copies of electoral registers are already available on computerised disk, and in the future computerised counting of ballot papers by means of electronic vote counting machines is likely to replace manual counting of votes.

If computers now in existence are able to read numbers on stacks of papers, then the technology for speedy cross-referencing and making such political inquiries is already with us. It seems that computerised matching and print-outs of entire lists of voters for each party is now perfectly possible. It may or may not be far-fetched to conjecture that at some point in the future an oppressive government or its over-zealous officials might surreptitiously wish to find out the name and address of all "dissidents" who voted against them at a general election, but if so the bundles of ballot papers and counterfoil stubs retained by the Clerk of the Crown are available for analysis to produce the necessary information. Of course the law prohibits such inquiries, but the practical reality is that compliance with and enforcement of the law ultimately depends upon the various interested agencies of government themselves.

The ostensible argument for putting the voter's electoral registration number on the counterfoils of ballot papers is said to be that it facilitates investigations into alleged electoral offences, such as multiple voting and impersonation, so as to decide whether a fresh election needs to be ordered by the Election Court.

However, vote-tracing hardly helps in the detection and prevention of any offence in itself, for there is no way that the identity of the impersonator can be discovered from the ballot paper. Investigations of such electoral fraud, involving voters finding out when they arrive at the polling station that their name has already been ticked off the electoral register by the clerk, can rely upon the evidence of the polling clerk that a ballot paper has indeed already been handed to some impersonator—tracing the ballot paper itself is not necessary.

The case for recording voters' registration numbers on the ballot counterfoils therefore is a weak one and cannot outweigh a growing public concern at the risk to the secrecy of the ballot. The regulations contained in the Representation of the People Act limiting the legal circumstances in which the information may be retrieved may be sufficient as rules themselves, but guaranteeing actual compliance with the rules in the real world raises more complex questions; for whilst the information to discover how individual citizens voted continues to be stored, the potential for their misuse remains. The practice of writing voters' electoral registration numbers—or entering any other note which might disclose a voter's personal identity—on the counterfoils of ballot papers should be expressly abolished by law.

The only way to satisfy unionists that an election is entirely fair would be to take out all the shinner votes and burn them...in front of the cameras.
"Massive Electoral Mindreading" is just a cheap sequel to "Massive Electoral Fraud". To be fair though, it does have a comedic element which the original lacked so you never know, it could catch on.

Peter Emerson of the Green Party has been raising this and related issues of malpractice for decades. He makes a lot of useful observations on our processes here compared to places like the Ukraine.

We don't come out of comparisons well and the recent postal ballot problem was so obvious and follows on from the farce that was the postal experiment in various regions during the European elections.

We would do well to listen to him.

A.W.
I couldn't agree more. I'm still disgusted, shocked and surprised that if a postal vote is claimed on my behalf that it's not even sent to my address. The fraudster can arrange for it to be sent anywhere. At least that's the case in England, is it to much to hope that NI might have sensible rules.

Another little matter that does need to be addressed is election agents with a print out of the electoral role ticking of who has voted at the polling station. Each party needs only one agent per polling station and they should be kept at a distance from the voters. They should be there to monitor the general conduct not create lists of who has voted and who has not. This is totally inappropriate especially in an NI context

"This is totally inappropriate especially in an NI context"

It is not illegal and every party does it

Chris

It doesn’t make it right and the law should be changed. I have seen this abused.

No government should be able to check who you voted for and no party be able to keep a record as to if you voted at all.

Then there is the inappropriate use of the electoral role for commercial purposes.

Lots of room for improvement

"It doesn’t make it right and the law should be changed"

It shouldn't

Polling agents are there to stop impersonation and when the electoral number is called out you need to be able to put a name to the number and a face to the name.

It is the only way

Using the number is not the only way to connect a name and a face.

The roll is numbered street by street. The current abuse of the system suits parties who have established control of particular streets by whatever means, and who use this technique to increase the relative turnout in these areas.

People have the right not to vote 'none of the above and I have better things to do' by not attending the poll. Their opinion and their privacy should be respected.

I welcome the admission that the practice exists.

Be jebbers
Somebody else is catching on . While not saying aye nor nay to the question as to in you can be reconised by your voting pattern this has been used by the shinners as a intimadatory tatic for many years The postal vote system is also open to intimadation with shinners runnign around demanding votes left right and centre . Given that they still maintain their illegal and fully armed army would you refuse them a little bit of paper
Finally a computer based postal voting system can and should be introduced a sa matter of urgency

Polling Agents are there to help stop election fraud, by challenging people who claim to be someone else. If someone turns up and claims to be Joe Bloggs from 17 suburban CuldeSac, and the polling agents happen to know the people who live at that address, they can challenge him. If they're not told who the person is claiming to be, then they can't help to prevent personation.

If you're gullible enough to believe that people are being forced to vote, then you might want to ask yourself why the presumed intimidators would need a written list? The sort of organization that could keep people in line like that would have the resources to recognize individual voters as they turned up at the polls, with or without lists.

Article today in the Times of London discussing electoral fraud.

Police forces across Britain investigate postal vote fraud

"A QUARTER of the police forces across Britain are investigating last week’s elections in a purge on fraud and malpractice.

Detectives are conducting 25 inquiries in 19 constituencies, The Times has learnt, mostly into alleged postal ballot fraud. "

Leading article :

One person, one vote

" There is a simple, if laborious, way of ensuring that the voting process in British elections remains secure and secret. It is to produce a reliable electoral roll by requiring individual registration before elections, and then to match it to actual voters with identity checks — whether at polling stations or in the form of checkable signatures on postal ballots. This is what the Electoral Commission has demanded of Government. There is no reason that reforms based on these planks should not command cross-party support, and every need for a pledge to enact them as swiftly as possible to be included in the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday. "

Davos

I would agree and do believe we need to tighten up generally a lot of what goes on at present really is not acceptable. There are other things that I would like to see changed such as ballot papers that list candidates in random order and having a canvass free zones 200m around the polling stations.

New Labour have abused the postal system in Birmingham and according to colleagues of mine in Oxford put out fake leaflets in previous elections like the one’s suffered by Alliance here. So it seems every party has some blame. Then there is the claim in Holywood which right or wrong leaves a stain on people who have nothing to do with the problem. This is all totally unacceptable as it undermines the very basis of democracy.

We need to tighten up the system so that all candidates have a fair crack at being elected, that only those entitled to vote do vote and the confidentiality of the electorate is respected. We also need to increase the penalties for abusing the system and fraud.

Chris

“Polling agents are there to stop impersonation and when the electoral number is called out you need to be able to put a name to the number and a face to the name”.

Are you seriously saying that ticking off the electoral role helps you but a face to the name, either you are local and know the people or you don’t. I have seen with my own eyes abuse of the information collected in polling stations. The way to stop impersonation is an accurate role and strict identity checks. The other activity has other prime purposes. This activity really does need to stop.

I just realised I forgot to say - Offer as usual , those unable to access the Times can e-mail me for copy full articles.


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