Sheffield local elections - electronic voting

[jude 10]

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 [email protected] 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.

[baublebag 10]

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

[mikey 10]

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.

[Chris 10]

Originally posted by "geoffbowen"

 

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

 

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