Voting System

El_Presidente

I just realised something, I cant vote in today's referendum. I got into college at 8 and won't get home until about 10 tonight. The polls are open between 9 am and 9 pm so I wont get there on time.

This got me thinking that there must be loads of people out there who want to vote but cant. Like college students who live away from home or commuters who cant make it home on time.

I know it might be hard to implement but what if the government tried to have some sort of on-line voting system. They could mail out passwords with your voting card so that on the day you could just log in and vote. Of course there may be security issues with people trying to impersonate others to sway the vote but if you think about if someone really wanted to they could impersonate you with the current system as well. All they need is to be able to forge some ID and they could steal your vote.

There would be a lot of details to work out but if the government was really serious about wanting to increase voter turnout they might want to consider the idea.

bonkey

The problem with on-line voting is its lack of security. There is pretty much no way whatsoever that you can be sure that someone is who they claim to be.

OK - I know there is allegedly large amounts of voting fraud in Ireland already with the "vote early and often" mantra, and the graveyards having high turnouts in key issues, but on-line voting would be even scarier, as it is open to systematic abuse on a massive scale.

jc

Xterminator

Online voting may not be secure yet, but there should be a system, when you can give prior notice you would like to send a postal ballot, or vote at a different centre etc.

That way they give all who want to vote a fair chance, without them losing a days work etc.

Or make voting days bank holidays? Now I'd vote for that!

X

TwoShedsJackson

A request was made to the Government to make the polling day for this referendum a Saturday, as was done in a recent byelection. In that by-election, polling was about 25% higher than usual if memory serves.

However, conspiracy theorists might like to point out that students and others unable to vote today due to the polling hours may be more liberal than, for example, OAP's, thus the government are doing it purposely to stack the odds a little higher in their favour

flyz

Well Ideally we should be allowed to vote at any polling station. Or even any polling station within a county for starters.
I have to travel an hour after work to get to the polling station I'm registered to vote in as opposed to going 2 mins down the road at lunch time

THey could have each polling station connected to a central database. So you're name can be ticked off once you've voted.

bonkey

When I was in UL, I seem to recall something being organised whereby the students could re-register to vote from the local area. This was managed (IIRC) by some part of the student body in association with whatever legal eagles were required.

Net result....I was able to vote in the area the Uni was situated, rather than back home where I was officially registered.

Xterminator is right though - its not actually beyond the bounds of possibility to be able to sort this stuff out.

In Switzerland (here we go again, every thinks), everyone is registered as living in a specific place. You are supposed to inform the community when you move into new accomodation as to your address. This central address system is used for almost everything, from police issues to boting ballots. Everyone gets their ballot posted to them, and they then bring it with them to *any* ballot-station where they can vote. ballot papers are sent out in advance, and if someone reports not receiving one, then there are procedures in place to ensure that the person in question will be able to vote, and that the missing ballot will not be usable. Oh - and voting is always carried out on a weekend.

At the end of the day, though, I have to be hoenst and say I have very little sympathy for anyone who has not registered in the locale/constituency in which they are domiciled. Its not hard to do, and if you couldnt have been arsed (or forgot) to do it, isnt it a bit rich to complain that the government wont let you vote. People dont change accomodation that often, and if you can let you bank know where to send your new bank cards, its not that much harder to let the government know where you will vote.

jc