Polling card up for grabs

[KeyboardJockey]

Livingslime

I always find it a bit infantile when people invent names like this, like its going to be a real slur on their character and sway the vote somehow. Reminds me of people who say 'Tony Bliar' in conversation because it's like well edgy and political (tho its about 5 years too old).

Its not as bad as some of the names I've heard him being called.

 

[ChrisFilter]

Its not as bad as some of the names I've heard him being called.

As you furiously wank into a sock?

 

[KeyboardJockey]

As you furiously wank into a sock?

LOL!

Nah I'm more upmarket. I use a half a pair of Rigby and Peller stockings.

 

[ChrisFilter]

LOL!

Nah I'm more upmarket. I use a half a pair of Rigby and Peller stockings.

That'll be the new found Tory in you

 

[Roadkill]

The trouble is, if too many of us cancel out his vote, we create a bizarre anarchist block vote for livingstone

Better that than Bojo, surely?

 

[eoin_k]

Its called tactical voting.

You are Carl Von Clausewitz and I claim my prize!

 

[detective-boy]

The gates are wide-open for massive electoral farce.

The only answer to which is a proper ID system - robust verification of ID and issue of forge-resistant documentation and / or use of biometrics.

But we don't want ID cards.

And, according to todays Daily-Mail-ish item on BBC Breakfast, we can't even see the point in robust verification of ID before issue of a first passport ...

What's your suggestion?

 

[detective-boy]

I've called up the electoral office, and they've confirmed that there is nothing to stop me using that polling card and voting with it in the mayoral elections.

Only in the same way that there is "nothing" stopping you committing murder.

If you represent yourself as someone else and vote, by production of a card in another's name, or by giving another name, or both or any other means you commit the offence of "personation", contrary to s.60 Representation of the People Act 1983 (maximum penalty 2 years imprisonment I think).

 

[bluestreak]

Hmm, the risk of arrest, or the risk of Boris Johnson....

I'll take the big house anyday.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I still haven't got my bloody card. Bah.

 

[bluestreak]

I've got a spare one you can have, if you can pretend to be a woman.

 

[ethel]

and i won't be getting one. i registered by the 16th, but lewisham aren't putting me on the register until june!

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I've got a spare one you can have, if you can pretend to be a woman.

I don't really think of you in that way tbh.

 

[bluestreak]

heartbreaker

 

[Guineveretoo]

There is remarkably little double voting or even personation going on in this country (well, in England, anyway - I don't know what happens in the other bits of this country), considering you don't need ID, presumably because everyone knows that it's the same poll clerks all day, and it is quite a difficult thing to do, claiming that you are someone else. If there is any doubt, the Presiding Officer will challenge the individual and they will have to answer some standard questions. If the poll clerks and/or the Presiding Officer recognise the person from previously (and bear in mind that polling duty is dead boring - we do tend to remember people), they could be arrested.

Having said that, I do remember an occasion in the 90s when I was a poll clerk in one of the Cambridge polling stations, and the "anarchists" in the community where I lived had put in false names to the electoral register as some kind of protest, but then appeared to regret not having the opportunity to vote, and voted under some extremely dubious names, including Nosmo King and Anna Quey, which one would have thought would have been obvious, as well as those a bit less obvious. That was the year that Labour got in in that particular ward by a handful of votes, and the anarchists claimed it was their victory. Bless 'em - I bet they regret that now

 

[bluestreak]

In the past I often registered as a Mr Wright.

That's because there's no such thing as mr wright.

D'yer see what I did there?

 

[JTG]

I may possibly be in London on polling day so I'm happy to use any loose votes anyone has lying around

 

[Bob]

I still haven't got my bloody card. Bah.

You don't need it! Really.

Bizarrely you actually need nothing to vote. Just your name - in your head.

Unsurprisingly there are quite a lot of allegations of electoral fraud in the UK...

 

[ethel]

i know! in northern ireland you have to take id with you. the first time i voted in scotland they looked at me like i was mad when i produced my passport.

 

[spanglechick]

I've got a spare one you can have, if you can pretend to be a woman.

i do a good impersination...

 

[Brainaddict]

I have two cards in my own name I moved house recently and wanted to vote in my new constituency. By the time I sent in the registration form I'd already got the polling card from my old address. Now I've just received the polling card for my new address...

But I don't know if the polling card for the old address would still be useful. They check people against the register right?

It's highly bizarre that you don't need ID though.

 

[JTG]

But I don't know if the polling card for the old address would still be useful. They check people against the register right?

don't count on it. when I was a student I was registered to vote in both Bristol & Southampton. Had a postal vote at the 1997 election and my parents told me that when they voted they could see my name had been crossed out already 'cos of the postal vote. However, I was nevertheless on the list and entitled to vote in two different areas at once.

 

[bluestreak]

I've had multiple polling cards before, and used them.

 

[Guineveretoo]

I've had multiple polling cards before, and used them.

Really? You went into the same polling station, with the same polling staff, on the same day, and voted more than once? Risky, I would have said....

 

[JTG]

he didn't say that he did

 

[Guineveretoo]

he didn't say that he did

No, that's why I asked

 

[stat]

well, I voted - just once, of course

interesting to see that next to my name (which they crossed off) was a number. On the back of each voting card was a number. And the attending officer was writing down the two numbers next to each other on a form....

...so, that form identifies my name with my voting card!

ha! hahaha!

at school I was told that Britain was one of the leading exponents of democracy in the world. Illustrious, pioneering history in developing democracy etc, noble institutions yada yada.

Yet in the past two weeks I've found out without doubt that we do not even have "one man one vote", and nor is that vote secret!

I wouldn't be so pissed off if we hadn't gone off butchering innocents in Iraq in the name of democracy.

 

[JTG]

oh yeah, they can easily find out who you voted for should they so desire

 

[King Biscuit Time]

I'm going off to vote later with nothing more than my own name and address in my head. Thats all you need

 

[Brainaddict]

stat, that's disgraceful that they are undermining the anonymity of voting. I reckon you should report it - the electoral commission maybe? Actually, looking at their website they don't seem to have a place to report electoral irregularities. Useful fuckers eh? So I'm not sure who you should report it to but hopefully someone here will.