So people were unable to vote, and it looks like we are heading for a hung parliament. What a surprise. All of the signs pointed to this and not one of the parties seems to have been able to change it. It strikes me that some radical change is needed to the whole system.
How can it be right, when I can send a payment across the internet from my bank to yours, or I can wirelessly connect my laptop pretty much wherever I am in the world, that to vote for my candidate of choice I have to walk into an MDF cupboard and put a cross on a piece of paper? Am I the only one that thinks that this is the most ridiculously archaic system ever known to man?
This is highlighted even more by the people who were unable to vote. They simply could not get into their voting stations before 10pm. Oops!
Now we are told that the second and third most popular parties in the election (using the current system of non proportional representation – don’t get me started on that one) may form together to oust the most popular party. Could that or should that be allowed to happen? It doesn’t seem very democratic to me.
Wouldn’t it all work much better if I was able to vote electronically (even if it is still at a polling station)? I walk in as usual, but this time I have a bar code on my polling card. I swipe this and then am given my choice of candidates. I press the button, I am asked to confirm my selection, and then my vote is cast. Automatically it is sent to be counted (sorry 6th formers and tellers you are all now redundant). During the day you could have hourly ‘live’ updates from your constituency telling you who was in the lead. Wouldn’t this be more likely to force people who were unsure whether to vote to get out and put down their mark? This would certainly lead to an increase in turnout. Then, at 10.01pm we would all know the results.
You could even build into the new system that if there is a hung parliament (which is clearly not good for our country), you go straight back the next day and do it all again, saving months of uncertainty.
For a Government that has spent years forcing radical, and often unecessary, change down the throats of unsuspecting solicitors, isn’t it about time they forced some change on themselves, whoever is finally in charge?
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Author: Nick Jervis
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For once Nick I don’t think I’m with you. Yes it’s a lovely vision of the future and I am sure it will happen one day. However given the appalling lack of success of government IT projects to date — do you really think it would be a smooth and cheap option – at a time when public expenditure will be slashed and subject to massive increases, the last thing we need is another expensive unnecessary IT white elephant projects. Anyway don’t you remember the hanging chad problem? If you think that was bad, just imagine the problems with an IT system that didn’t quite work.