Avoiding fraud in elections
From:
dermot dobson
Date:
May 02 10:23 UTC
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There has been growing concern in the national press over increasing levels of
fraud in elections - especially postal and proxy voting.
Blair had designs on increasing voter involvement by introducing internet,
telephone or even text-message voting. None of these would have maintained, let
alone improved, fraud prevention in the voting process. Given how easy it is to
clone phones (or to spoof internet traffic) it is entirely feasible to sit down
for a day and generate 1000 fraudulent votes.
This year, along with quite a number of others in Headington, (according to the
staff in the polling station) my better quarter and I didn't receive voter
cards, in spite of having confirmed our entry on the electoral roll.
We both took our passports (deeming that a hospital photo ID card might not
have been sufficient) and a copy of a recent utility bill to confirm our
identity.
In practice, we needed neither!
We presented ourselves at the appropriate desk and gave our address, and then
our names *were read to us from the list* and we were merely asked if they were
correct.
Given the very low voter turnouts these days, surely this is a huge security
flaw? After all, the lower the turnout, the lower the risk of a fraudulent vote
being
detected by potential duplication? I've never missed a vote in 30-odd years; I
would like to feel confident that my vote actually means something, otherwise,
why bother?
I'm not blaming the staff at the polling station, I'm sure they just followed
the rules - but perhaps it is way past time for the rules to be changed?
And no, I'm not in favour of the national ID card scheme, which amounts to yet
another incremental step in the loss of personal liberty we've suffered over
the last few years.
.