Right then.

Just tried out the e-voting and cast my vote. And it was nearly painless.

The only really stupid thing is that the powers that be have failed to get a valid security certificate for the supposedly secure site. This is pretty lazy (or cheap) of them - many people would be up in arms if whenever they visited their bank's website they got some poxy message such as:

The website's certificate was signed by an unknown certifying authority. You might be connecting to a website that is pretending to be "www.voteyourway.org.uk" which could put your confidential information at risk. Would you like to continue anyway?

So 10 out of 10 for style but minus several million for inspiring confidence to the clueless.

I decided to risk it and voted anyway - if nothing else because I wanted to see if they'd managed to screw anything else up.

Sam

I voted by SMS last Sunday with no probs.

Up the Greens!

I just voted and didn't get any of that stuff you got up??

Just all went through no probs without any message

Yes! Greens the best option here too ;-)

Only ones who said ANYTHING about the war in the bumf I got.
And they have good beards.

Must talk to my candidate Mr Wroe about the incinerator.... But that's another thread.

If people are as ****** off with labour as they should be it could be a very interesting result - assuming that people bother to vote. Don't be apothetic now.

-----

And I'm glad they've fixed the website!

Sam

Ya know we haven't had any cards through the door? Have they stopped doing that??

Moon Maiden

Yes its all these new smart cards ( looks a credit card), you have to be on the electoral register to get one. You canntake that along to your polling station or vote on line or by text messaging.

Sheffield is the only city in the UK trialing this.

I have a paper polling card. Just found it. You have to be in one of the trial areas to get a posh card.

Moon Maiden

Get yourself down to the polling station, dont waste your vote.

Women fought long and hard for it :D

oh I intend to but I still don't know who to vote FOR.

Moon Maiden

I have just voted Independent as I have done at the last two local elections. I am an ex Labour voter who will never vote Labour again!

Lets vote Geof Bowen, at least he listens to our views.
Come Geof get yourself registered.

Damn... you've uncovered my secret plot behind the forum = world power :twisted: :lol:

But seriously...

It would be a good idea, when they sent us these new cards, to include a small amount of information about each party and what they stand for in the local area (i.e. it's going to be more specific than the general party line).

Surely if they restricted each party to a set amount of space/words then it would be a fair way of informing the voters of who's planning what.

My name is Judith Cate and I'm writing an article on all the different ways of voting that Sheffield now has. I was just wondering if I could have permission from any of you to quote your messages in my article. Also, I'd love to telephone interview some of you - just to find out how easy it is to text-vote, or how annoying or easy e-voting is.

If anyone wouldn't mind being interviewed or quoted please get in touch via joa00jcc@sheffield.ac.uk or by telephoning me on 07950150841 or 0114 266 8872. If I am not available on my landline leave a message and I promise to get back to you.

Cheers,
J. Cate.

I just voted by text message and it was completely cool and painless, it said on the card it might take an hour for the receipt to come through but it appeared straight away. Most exciting (I should get out more :)

From The Star
Probe demanded into e-voting 'farce'

IT was meant to make voting simple, quick and convenient but last night politicians condemned Sheffield's new electronic voting system as "a farce".

Lib Dem Leader Paul Scriven said his party would be demanding an investigation after computer glitches created lengthy queues and confusion at the polls.
Some voters were turned away from polling stations and the problems were compounded by staff who were unfamiliar with the new technology.
A system to check whether people had already cast their vote suffered computer hitches and staff were forced to resort to taking names and addresses on paper of voters and verifying them later.
The Lib Dems had warned against so many wards being involved in the pilot scheme and say they predicted problems Around 21,000 people tried e-voting in 15 wards in Hallam, Brightside and Central constituencies.
They had the option of the internet, text message, touch tone telephone, at public kiosks, by postal vote or at a polling station.
But early reports on election day from the public revealed problems and politicians at the count were critical.
Lib Dem Janice Sidebottom said voters in her ward had had waits of 25 minutes.
"Some of the computers didn't get to Broomhill polling stations until after 10am," she said. "People were being turned away at first then they started taking people's name and address to verify later.
"The council didn't train the staff enough so they were not prepared for the computer problems.
"One way of making it better would be to stop the e-voting the day before then on polling day just have people voting in the traditional way.
"You would then be able to check in advance if anyone had already voted electronically."
Council bosses admitted there had been teething troubles but were confident that no one had been able to abuse the system or vote twice.

Originally posted by "geoffbowen"

Damn... you've uncovered my secret plot behind the forum = world power :twisted: :lol:

But seriously...

It would be a good idea, when they sent us these new cards, to include a small amount of information about each party and what they stand for in the local area (i.e. it's going to be more specific than the general party line).

Surely if they restricted each party to a set amount of space/words then it would be a fair way of informing the voters of who's planning what.

Excellent idea :) Especially:
if the parties were forced to provide only information about what they will do instead of sniping at the other parties
the information has to be about both city-wide and local initiatives
there's information included about how the various candidates voted over the previous couple of years