anonymous voting?

[chirpychirpy]

is voting in General Elections truly anonymous? I know that when you go in to cast your vote no-one can see how you've marked your card. But hasn't the card got some kind of serial number on from which people could discover some time later which way you voted?

[Kathyan]

Look on here, it answers your question.

http://www.walsall.go...ctions/voting_faq.htm

[DrFilth]

once the count has been accepted they should burn the slips or shred them never mind keep them for six months.

[jake-the-peg]

Yes the flaw in the logic is this bit isn't it

only a court can open the seals on the counterfoils and match the two parts

Exactly how difficult would it be for MI5 to get a court order to do this for say BNP voters or Sinn Fein voters in NI and have the court action kept secret?

Not difficult at all I'd think.

Not a fan of these sorts of organisations but we should be able to have true confidence that this can't happen

[DrFilth]

jake i will not name him but he comes on here and his mate is an ex cop, he stated that any who vote for the far right or left etc are put on a list
they have ex police officers who check the papers and then make notes of who is voting for theses paties.

[DrFilth]

parties

[jake-the-peg]

That's a common myth(?) surprising often from mates of ex-cops/MI5 officiers/government officers etc.

All myth makers claim a figure of responsibility to give them credibility.

Ever seen a viirus-hoax? they normanlly start "microsoft today announced a new virus that they can't fix - ya de yah"

Microsoft is named there similarly to give it credibility.

Now I'm not saying it doesn't happen but I've never seen any credible evidence that it does.

I think it could happen and I think we ought to have the confidence that it doesn't.

If they ran an election like that in Afghanistan no one would vote because they'd be too suspicious so I don't accept the argument on the web page that it's for our protection.

It's not necessary in other countries it shouldn't be necessary here

[jno]

I remember this chap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rusbridger

once writing, I think in the Guardian, about how he'd previously had the job of reviewing voting slips to pick out the communists.

[foxyferret]

You do not have to give your number to the tellers at the entrance. I always ignore them. You only have to give it to the poll clerk.

[youngmafbog]

I'm sure Browns henchmen will know exactly what we vote for, afterall they spy on everything else we do including our litter.

[rov1200]

Yes but they put two and two together. When you get these doorstep cavassers they attempt to get your voting preference.
When you cast your vote at the polling station you have checkers outside to see who has actually voted. Therefore if you haven't voted and had shown a preference for that party expect a home call to take you to the polling station.

[foxyferret]

If you dont give the tellers your card, they won't know who you are

[foxyferret]

there may be 30 John Smiths on the lists for instance. I'm not saying it could not happen but do you think someone is going to go through hundreds of votes to match them up? Perhaps if they were desperate.

[McMouse]

Eventhough I'm a raging extremist I always vote for a mainstream party to fool the spies.

[foxyferret]

right on Mc Mouse. When they knock on my door, I tell them I am going to vote for them. They all go away happy then I choose the one I really want.

[Zeuhl]

foxy

the point is;

if you give your details to the teller at the door, all they can do is check you off against a list of their expected supporters and chase up any that haven't turned up. They won't know who you voted for and shouldn't ask you.

when you give your details to the official clerk they give you a personally coded voting slip so someone could, in theory, take that voting slip later and identify whose vote it is.

[foxyferret]

H Zeuhl, I understand what you are saying but my point is that will only happen IF you give the tellers your card or any of your information which you don't have to, thats your choice. Yes they could possibly chase you up, but only if you let them have what they want. As I said before, the government could in theory match up your slip when the ballot box is opened, but don't forget when the ballot box is taken to be counted, they are all tipped onto a table with hundreds or in some cases thousands of others. Do you think they would bother to search through all these hundreds of bits of paper to match them up to see how you had voted? I have actually taken part in the counting process and on the night, you don't have time to do anything but count. There are also people watching you to make sure all is above board, so if they were going to do any "matching" it would have to be once all the ballot papers have been taken away. Still possible in theory I know but how likely I don't know.

[Justincider]

I can never understand why people don't want others to know who they vote for. I can only think they must be ashamed?