BAD DECISION
Derby City Council had to apologised for
delivering postal voting information after
midnight. One woman said she thought she was
being burgled when she heard her gate open and
noises by her front door. The council said the
decision to include the area in a postal vote was
a late one and gave workers a short time to get
the information to voters. |
SCEPTICAL
We have just received our postal vote
ballot forms, but the votes have to be signed by
a witness. What witness? It doesn't say! But
that's all right, I'll sign for my wife and she
can sign for me, I hope.
This is a bit fishy. I thought we had secret
ballots in Great Britain. When I get my witness
form signed, it goes in the white envelope, along
with the brown envelope containing the ballot
papers.
It says that if I do not get my declaration form
witnessed, my vote will not be counted. So will
someone perhaps less cynical than me explain how
my vote will be kept secret?
What is to stop the opener of the brown envelope
from having a peek in the white envelope and
seeing which way I voted? There are barcodes,
numbers and all manner of ways to see which way a
person has voted.
And if I haven't got my declaration form
witnessed, how do they know what vote it is that
will not count? And what about old people on
their own, who have enough trouble trying to
decipher their pension application?
Is this another New Labour method of reducing the
so-called Grey Vote? I'm all for change, but this
postal voter will remain sceptical. John
Church |
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VOTING
Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
 As
election time comes round again, we see councillors
crawling out of the woodwork to try and persuade people
to vote for them. They all promise high hopes for Derby
and topics such as 'dog dirt bins' feature high on their
agenda.
The Tory/Lib Dems continue to accuse Labour for all the
ongoing problems while Labour, in turn, promise to
achieve everything they were unable to do during the many
years they were previously in office.
As the 10 June 2004 elections are an 'all postal' ballot
and there is a total cock-up in getting the papers
delivered in time for people to vote, these proceedings
are set to become yet another fiasco to add to all the
rest.
Lord Falconer admitted
that although some voters will not get their ballot
papers ahead of the 1 June 2004 deadline, it is
"something of a success". Constitutional
Affairs Minister Christopher Leslie said, "All
ballot packs are on course to be issued and that almost
all the forms for the postal pilot scheme were either
with the Royal Mail or ready for collection."
He added, "While these pilots are challenging, at
this stage it looks as though the printers and returning
officers are hitting their targets satisfactorily.
Electors in all-postal regions will have ample time to
receive, consider, complete and return their ballot
papers."
Prepare for voting in this election to be an all time
record low. Many people won't receive their papers in
time while others will receive multiple copies. It's been
announced that this won't happen, but in view of past
experiences, it does nothing to instill confidence in the
whole process.
Add to this that you have to wade through numerous
instructions on what is signed, which form goes in which
envelope, and then getting a neighbour to countersign it,
many people will decide it just isn't worth all the
effort.
The
guidelines for Derby state that party election posters
can only be pinned to every eighth lamp post to give all
candidates fair representation and avoid an
over-proliferation of material. Two posters can be pinned
back to back, but parties cannot put posters on lamp
posts next to each other.
However, posters for Labour's Michael Futers appear to
contravene the guidelines and those supporting
Conservative candidate Christopher Charlesworth have also
been called into question. The posters supporting Mr
Futers have been put up on three consecutive lamp posts,
just 15 metres apart, in Duffield Road and Agard Street
while Mr Charlesworth's posters are in a diagonal line
across the Five Lamps junction.
Michael Foote, deputy chief executive, said,
"Candidates can put posters on every eighth lamp
post. Any more would be contrary to our rules. Individual
candidates are responsible for putting up their own
posters. They can either employ someone or use party
workers. With the Conservative posters, it's a matter of
opinion whether the rules have been broken." Who's
opinion?
Chris Williamson, leader of Derby's Labour group, who
lives in the Five Lamps area said, "I don't tend to
drive down Duffield Road, so I haven't seen the posters.
I'll bring the matter to the attention of our agent and
if the posters are in breach of the rules, we'll
act." Derby's Tory group leader, and deputy council
leader, Philip Hickson said, "As far as I am
concerned, they're all in perfect order. If we receive a
complaint then we'll rectify the problem."
Liberal Democrat and council leader Maurice Burgess said,
"We've tried with our posters to stick closely to
the rules. I can't guarantee that we haven't got it wrong
somewhere in the city, but we've tried our very
best." General Election campaign posters broke the
same council agreement in 2001. It seems all parties
agree that breaking the rules is perfectly acceptable
when you have a vested interest.
Labour's poster is situated above a traffic sign which
categorically states: "NO LEFT TURN".
The
Institute for Public Policy Research suggests those who
do not vote should be fined to combat low turnout at the
polls. Under the institute's plan, electors would be
offered a "none of the above" choice or could
simply spoil their papers. Ben Rogers, from the
institute, said, "If you had compulsory turnout,
then the core vote would turn out anyway and the
political parties would have to spend much more time
persuading people to vote for them." The report
found that the last two general elections had the lowest
turnouts, 59% and 61%, since World War I. (Source: BBC News, May/06)
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