Another warning about voting in May
Not long to go now, but the BBC reports that
New vote-checking technology may struggle to cope during next month’s local elections in England and Wales, it has been claimed.
Returning officers said postal votes could be thrown out because systems set up to tackle electoral fraud were not working properly.
Postal voters have had to supply their signature and date of birth.
Computers will scan and check the information, but one expert said the technology might not perform.
Malcolm Dumper, policy director at the Association of Electoral Administrators – which represents election staff – said officials were also concerned that legitimate voters could have their ballot unfairly rejected if their signature was not consistent.
Something, by the way, that the Electoral Commission warned us about in December.
Why are we rushing this?
[...] the Government was advised that the systems weren’t ready, but allowed deployment [...]