Hi-tech voting?

[Psamathe]

....
The requirement is for you to mark the paper, there is no restriction on how you do that, the polling station should have been closed down, firstly for getting that so wrong, secondly for even looking at what you were doing in the booth, thirdly for giving you an unrecorded slip - it takes a court order to link them but there's a requirement that it's possible.
https://fullfact.org/europe/it-safe-vote-pencil/
The only reason the use of pencils is encouraged is the thick easy to read mark they leave and that they don't smudge.

We may be talking cross purposes (sorry) as you were discussing pencil vs pen but I did find something interesting trying to find my own local council candidates and strayed into EU Referendum results for my constituency

The interesting bit is the rejeced paper because the individual made a make that identifies him/her (presumably signed or something).

Ian

[thirdcrank]

I don't understand why they do the count in local elections immediately after polling stations close. AFAIK, the people doing the counting are recruited from local authority staff and are paid quite handsomely for it. (I'm by no means up-to-date so it may be that the job is openly advertised these days.) Apart from anything else, having people work at night who are not used to it is a recipe for errors. Apart from the politicians themselves, who could care less if the votes were counted and the results were published on the day after local elections? I don't stay up late these days but AFAIK, there isn't an all-night swingometer show.

[661-Pete]

Even if we keep to paper ballots marked in pencil, surely we could at least computerise the count process? Or is the sticking point, a machine capable of unfolding the ballot papers?

Regarding 'personation' or otherwise illegal voting, I wonder whether BoJo has attracted some unwelcome investigation?

[PH]

I must admit I never knew about the pencil thing.

Please stop repeating this - there is no pencil thing.

[Tangled Metal]

I must admit that I never knew about this pencil thing...

That you did not have to write in pencil but you could use ink pen or anything that left a mark that could few recognised.

Is that better?

[661-Pete]

Just taken a break from the count: they're running hours late and haven't declared our District yet - and then they have to start on the Town (where Mrs P is standing....)

I don't know whether the pencil/pen debate means anything, but I can testify (this is my first time at a count) that the process is tediously slow. Especially with multi-seat wards where some voters 'split' their votes between different parties.

It seems that at the end of the count for a ward, the counters have to show a representative from each party, all the spoilt papers, just so that everyone can agree that they were spoilt. Some were rejected for voting for too many candidates (an easy mistake to make). Some were blank. Some had "None of the above" scrawled over them. One had Et tu Theresa? scrawled over it. I'd have loved to have taken a photo of that one, but I wasn't sure if it was allowed, and didn't want to risk it.

Oh well - back over to the count shortly. They're bound to have finished the District soon...

[Cyril Haearn]

I must admit that I never knew about this pencil thing...

That you did not have to write in pencil but you could use ink pen or anything that left a mark that could few recognised.

Is that better?

Put a kiss by the name of the candidate you love most, you could put a tick or a smiley, maybe even a 'Plus One!', that would make your intention clear I think

I seem to remember the pencil thing from 1979 when I presumably did not vote for Mrs Thatcher, there were small black pencils with soft lead on strings in case any honourable voter tried to nick them

[squeaker]

Just taken a break from the count: they're running hours late and haven't declared our District yet - and then they have to start on the Town (where Mrs P is standing....)

I don't know whether the pencil/pen debate means anything, but I can testify (this is my first time at a count) that the process is tediously slow. Especially with multi-seat wards where some voters 'split' their votes between different parties.

The parish adjacent to ours had 17 standing for 15 seats. Policy was to count the parishes after the district counts (which started at 09:30). We left at 5:30pm and that particular parish count was still going. I pitied those doing the count as a) it had been a long day (and they had previously counted a district) b) it was the last count (for a contentious election) so more than usual observers

Yes the process is archaic, but very traceable / subject to scrutiny. (As a candidate I was told that I could add my seal to the ballot box after the polls close to make sure it wasn't tampered with overnight - I declined, as the local pub beckoned )

As for starting the count immediately after the polls close, one tory lady said she preferred it as it was "more exciting" - whatever turns you on, I suppose (Alternatively, it might shorten the waiting time to know your party 'has less support than last time'.)

Re: 'spoilt papers', a few had veritable essays on them (as much as you can write an essay in limited time with the supplied pencil...).