From: dpl@aber.ac.uk (David Philip Langstaff)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,alt.politics.british
Subject: Re: Rampant paranoia (was Voting slips: what happens to them,DANGER!)
Date: 7 Apr 92 11:28:04 GMT
Organization: University College of Wales, Aberystwyth

In article <1992Apr7.083816.26697@tcom.stc.co.uk> jes@tcom.stc.co.uk (JES) writes:
>In article <1992Apr04.213121.8468@robobar.co.uk> gtoal@robobar.co.uk (Graham Toal "gtoal@vangogh.cs.berkeley.edu") writes:
>>OK, what you missed (and haven't noticed any time you voted) is that
>>when you go to vote, they find your name in a large book.
>
>The book is electoral register.  This is the means by which you are
>'ticked off' when you vote, so that you cannot vote more than once.  You
>cannot vote at a polling station where you are not on the register (for
>that station).
>

When I ws standing as a candidate for the Greens in Southampton in city council
elections a couple of years back I took care to do the whole candidate thing, 
visiting polling stations, talking with officials, watching the votes being
counted etc. 

The procedure in the polling stations goes something like this...

You tell the official your name & address, s/he checks that you're on the
roll. The ballot papers come in counterfoil books with numberes on the
on the papers and the stubs. When the official hands has checked that you're
on the roll, they mark the ballot paper with an official perforation machine
and also write your electrol number on the counterfoil.

When the votes are counted, the first stage is a simple count of the number
of pieces of paper to check that there are as many papers as have been issued
at the polling stations. The next stage is to divide them by candidates
before the numbers of papers are counted for each candidate.

At this stage the spoilt ballots are weeded out and the returning officer has
a discussion with the candidates to decide which ones are Ok. I've seen
ballots refused because of CND signs, people writing 1,2,3,4 in order of choice
and also by people signing their names in the boxes. One of the best ones
was a little poem about anarchy & freedom (words by Cr@ss, I think), although
one year there was a ballot paper that the returning officer refused to show
to any of the candidates !!

Part of this ritual is the signing of a declaration of secrecy, quite a large
part of which is concerned with not attempting to find out the number on the
back of any particular ballot paper, so obviously given that number and the
counterfoil book, anyone  can find out who wrote any particular paper. After
the votes are all counted and the result declared, they're all collected into
plastic bags, one per candidate and one for the spoilt ones before being
'stored'.

So, in summary, if TPTB want to find out how you, or anybody else, voted, all
they have to do is look in the piles of ballot papers and do a little matching
up. However, the information they might get from this would, of course, not
be much use as to divuldge it would cause all sorts of ructions. Still, 
checking ballot papers for CPGB & NF candidates may be part of the secret
vetting procedures - who knows ?


pip pip




-- 
Dave Langstaff | Janet:dpl@uk.ac.aber.cs | Disclaimer: All my own work. 
Any views expressed are those of the author alone. | Phone:(0970)622838 
After-life, After-shave, don't hold with any of it, bleugh! - Sir Henry