Election fun

[andrewducker]

My Dad voted at 7:30am.  My Mum went down later and asked if he'd been in to vote.  And they told her.

Isn't there supposed to be some kind of secret ballot thing associated with the election?

Comments

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

There's no voting secrecy in the UK, the government can even find out who you voted for in the last election.

When politicians are allowed to stand outside the polling areas with their lackey's I don't see how anyone can think this is a great system. Just because we have such a great illusion of freedom in the UK, most people don't bother questioning it.

[profundo-rosso.livejournal.com]

There's no voting secrecy in the UK, the government can even find out who you voted for in the last election.

The fact that everyone is given a numbered form upon which to make their mark is a bit of a give away...

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

Sadly I don't think the sheeple realise this, as obvious as indeed it is.

However there's a good anti corruption argument for accounting for each vote. In the US elections using non-traceable electronic voting some of the results were the reverse of the exit polls...not that GOP would dream of rigging an election...god forbid.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

His vote would have been secret certainly, but they'll have crossed his name off the list they have when he got his voting slip. Since it was his wife that was asking (and only if he'd actually been in) I don't see a problem with that.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

And they knew she was his wife because? (Leaving aside the dodgy assumption that somehow we don't deserve privacy from our spouses.)

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I worked the last presidential election in a ward where lots of people had lived there a long time. Some of the same people had worked that precinct, too, or knew each other from around the community. I didn't really know anyone, having just moved there, but lots of people obviously knew each other. We had more than one spouse/paren/sibling ask after another family member, with intent to prod before the polls closed if necessary.

Also, there were poll-watchers (from both main parties, et al.) who checked people's names off the list of registered voters as they came through the lines.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

I do understand there are innocent reasons why you might want to know if someone has voted, I just don't think they are valid.

The poll watchers in the UK have to wait a certain distance from the actuall polling booth - they tend to ask people if they can see their pollling cards as they either go in or out.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

She had her own polling card with her name on it? There are only two people registered to that address and given her age (sorry Andy) it's highly unlikely they'd be brother and sister living together.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

Polling cards aren't valid IDs - all they prove is that you can get at mail at that address. And I still don't understand why you think it's OK for spouses to get this info about each other.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Just the fact that he or she bothered to come to the polling station, that's all. The actual vote, rightly, remains secret.

I don't see why you have a problem with this. I'm not suggesting that anyone should be able to walk in off the street and find out if you bothered to vote. These were rather specific circumstances: older married couple who've likely lived in the area for a good 10-20 years and probably even know the people manning the polling station.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

It's a boundary thing which I'm confused you can't see. I don't like the unversal assumption that spouses somehow don't get to keep things private and it's OK to tell one spouse stuff about the other. The specifics of the case don't matter.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

I see what you mean, but I don't agree with your objections in this instance. If she'd demanded to know what he voted, then sure...

In any case I'm sure Andy's parents don't care. :)

[adders.livejournal.com]

It's who you vote for that's meant to be secret, not if you voted.

[deililly.livejournal.com]

That notion never particularly occurred to me.

Could be though that my mother is a polling clerk and I got a text at 8.10 saying 'Well? Are you coming down?'