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The General Election


Guest Zeenat Aman

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I've just been up to vote, and to prove a point my mum didn't bother showing her card and just said her name. No questions asked, they just crossed her name out and gave her a voting slip.

Therefore, there is nothing to stop someone from going to a polling station, quickly spying a name that isn't crossed off the list, and pretending that's them. And then doing this at every polling station. And getting a group of like-minded voters to do the same. Especially between 9pm and 10pm, when chances are that anyone who's not yet crossed off the list isn't going to vote anyway.

And to think some people go to the bother of fixing postal votes...

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I've just been up to vote' date=' and to prove a point my mum didn't bother showing her card and just said her name. No questions asked, they just crossed her name out and gave her a voting slip.

Therefore, there is nothing to stop someone from going to a polling station, quickly spying a name that isn't crossed off the list, and pretending that's them. And then doing this at every polling station. And getting a group of like-minded voters to do the same. Especially between 9pm and 10pm, when chances are that anyone who's not yet crossed off the list isn't going to vote anyway.

And to think some people go to the bother of fixing postal votes...[/quote']

Yeah, it's total dodge really. They are supposed to ask you your address if you don't have the card.

Also, in my tenement block, there were 4 unused cards for people that I know don't live in the tenement anymore, but are still on the electoral roll. Whether they'd be on the cross-check list, i'm not sure, but I can't imagine they'd send out the cards (which have a position number corresponding to the person's listing in the polling station's printed electoral roll copies) if they weren't legit.

Is it a crime to commit election fraud? is it highly punishable? it seems a little too easy to defraud the system.

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just been along to vote in the 'glasgow north' constituency. i appeared on my card as Watthew Davies! they didn't ask any questions tho, just laughed and on it went. getting extra votes through the system would be a very easy thing to do, but it'd take a massive amount of effort before it made any impact and with that kind of organised effort, your chance of getting caught increase hugely.

spoons

/x

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Aye I think it would lead to a jail sentence, and aye, it would require a big operation to actually make a difference (Lib Dems going on about a 5% swing, but even that is a few thousand votes). Especially as presumably there'd be a fair few folk wondering why they'd already been voted off.

But I'm still amazed that the system is so laid back. They really are just asking for someone to do this.

However, if you got the people in your scheme to be the returning officers (or whatever those people who cross your name off are called) they could quickly do it last thing at night, before taking the boxes away to have the votes counted. Can't be that hard. I bet Anne Begg does it already. I'll bet that's why nobody bothers going up to the polling stations to bug you to vote for them at the last minute anymore :p

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When I went to vote today, I went there fully intent on voting lib dems, however when it came to making my mark, I hesitated when I saw Anne Begg's name. I remembered the documentary following her life as a wheelchair bound woman mp. I found it incredibly hard to vote against her. I eventually managed to but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the main reasons she held on was because of her dissability.

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