Thursday, August 02, 2007

Web Voting Unreality From Swindon's Returning Officer



Swindon's Deputy Returning Officer Alan Winchcombe seems to live in a parallel universe, a bit like in Back To The Future Part 2.

He's been defending the e-voting that took place in Swindon for the local elections in May. Despite one of the town's MP's saying she found the system 'unacceptable', despite the Electoral Commission saying further trials had 'little merit', Mr Winchcombe seems to think the system's fine.

He said the system didn't work in some places but did work in Swindon.

How did it work? Did it work by taking into the early hours of the following morning for the e-votes to be counted, longer than their paper ballot equivalent? Did it work by the equipment being set up in a rush of a few weeks, when it should have taken months of preparation? Did it work by some people thinking they had only the option of voting electronically? Did it work by having inadequete booths, were it could be witnessed several feet away who those on PCs were voting for?

Swindon Centric Says ; But don't expect these questions to be answered by Alan Winchcombe, he's stuck in an alternative 1985, where Swindon 'Hill Valley' is controlled by Biff Tannen and the town hall is a casino hotel.

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