2019 General Election

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
True - you can't beat something with a photograph, especially if it's recent. But what if someone rocked up in a burqa?

ETA I wonder if there's any stats on how many people turn up to their voting station only to find that they'd already voted.
Retinal mapping?

In 2019 there are plenty of ways to do this properly, it just need competent people to think about it and then actually do it.

Though, I wouldn't have much faith in that happening...
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
ETA I wonder if there's any stats on how many people turn up to their voting station only to find that they'd already voted. I get the impression that the government are solving a problem that doesn't really exist. Trying to be too much like our EU cousins, methinks.

I think the main issue last time was canvassers taking postal votes from people and potentially changing them, or something like that?

Can’t find the article on it now.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I think the main issue last time was canvassers taking postal votes from people and potentially changing them, or something like that?

Can’t find the article on it now.
Indeed. There does seem to be little evidence of impersonation at voting stations.

It's difficult to see it as anything more than an intentional bureaucratic obstruction.

An actual Poll Tax...
 

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
I think the main issue last time was canvassers taking postal votes from people and potentially changing them, or something like that?

Can’t find the article on it now.
I think there are bigger issues with postal votes.

This was mentioned on Twitter, though it is from 15 years ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/apr/05/uk.localgovernment

Warehouse was electoral fraud factory
Poll officials broke rules, police ignored evidence and Labour councillor lied, Birmingham postal voting investigation concludes

"When the election results came, they were little short of astounding, the judge concluded.

Turnout in Bordesley Green had risen by over 100%, in Aston by 350%, and there had been a huge swing to Labour. "Predominantly Muslim wards where feelings about the Iraq war still ran high had swung massively in favour of the political party seen to be responsible for that war."
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
In the old days, you pretty well needed a doctor's note to get a postal vote, now you can just ask for it.
 

RobUSA

Well-Known Forumite
Indeed. There does seem to be little evidence of impersonation at voting stations.

It's difficult to see it as anything more than an intentional bureaucratic obstruction.

An actual Poll Tax...


It's very similar to efforts made over here. Minimal if any evidence it's a problem BUT....
 

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
In the old days, you pretty well needed a doctor's note to get a postal vote, now you can just ask for it.
We had a postal vote for GE2015, though we had to go along to the council offices to vote as it wouldn't have arrived before we went on holiday the weekend before the election (we probably left early Saturday morning). I don't know how the process went, but there definitely weren't two voting slips waiting on the doormat when we got home.

For the EU Referendum we went on holiday 11 days before the vote so had to vote by proxy, so I can never be 100% certain how I voted or if I ever did.
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
For the EU Referendum we went on holiday 11 days before the vote so had to vote by proxy, so I can never be 100% certain how I voted or if I ever did.

We were in Lanzarote on the day of the vote. It was interesting to overheat people expressing their joy in voting Leave while simultaneously utilising their freedom of movement to go on holiday
 

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
We were in Greece at the time, in Stoupa. I don't remember much reaction, but then I probably wouldn't as we very much kept ourselves to ourselves. I'd even forgotten the referendum had happened, only finding out the result when I was lying on a sunbed by the pool the next morning. I suspect I was more interested in Wales' progress in the European Championships.
 

Tilly

Well-Known Forumite
We were in Greece at the time, in Stoupa. I don't remember much reaction, but then I probably wouldn't as we very much kept ourselves to ourselves. I'd even forgotten the referendum had happened, only finding out the result when I was lying on a sunbed by the pool the next morning. I suspect I was more interested in Wales' progress in the European Championships.

Fascinating
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I was on Lundy Island the day of the referendum. Voted at 7am as the polling station opened and then sodded off to catch the ferry to Lundy for the day thinking by the time I got home all this nonsense would be over.

Talk about being f****** wrong or what ? …. :eek:
 

RobUSA

Well-Known Forumite
I watched the results came in from Pittsburgh if I recall right.

And got that awful sinking feeling within the first hour.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Indeed. There does seem to be little evidence of impersonation at voting stations..
I had the misfortune to listen to Kate Hoey on Radio 5 the other day talking about this issue.

It was reckoned that in 2017 there were thought to be as many as 8 instances of this sort of thing at Polling Stations nationwide. One always wonders whether, in formal address, one should actually write 'eight' rather than '8', bit of a grey area. What is probably incontrovertible is that this is not a problem of great significance.

Kate was massively dismissive of the very suggestion that the call for photo ID at Polling Stations was in any way controversial.

As is generally the case when one comes to settle one's mind on what might be 'best practice', it is often best to ask questions like 'what would Kate Hoey do?' and having found it out, then determine that the exact opposite is probably the best course of action.
 

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
I had the misfortune to listen to Kate Hoey on Radio 5 the other day talking about this issue.

It was reckoned that in 2017 there were thought to be as many as 8 instances of this sort of thing at Polling Stations nationwide. One always wonders whether, in formal address, one should actually write 'eight' rather than '8', bit of a grey area. What is probably incontrovertible is that this is not a problem of great significance.

Kate was massively dismissive of the very suggestion that the call for photo ID at Polling Stations was in any way controversial.

As is generally the case when one comes to settle one's mind on what might be 'best practice', it is often best to ask questions like 'what would Kate Hoey do?' and having found it out, then determine that the exact opposite is probably the best course of action.

Hoey doesn’t even belong in the Labour Party. She wants to be a Tory or BXP MP. No idea why she hasn’t been deselected yet. Pretty sure her constituency voted remain too
 

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
Hoey doesn’t even belong in the Labour Party. She wants to be a Tory or BXP MP. No idea why she hasn’t been deselected yet. Pretty sure her constituency voted remain too
Vauxhall was 10th highest remain vote by percentage; over 77%. One has to wonder who she thinks she's representing, at least on the Brexit issue.
 
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