They know

[Channel Hopper]

So just tear off that little bit of the ballot card

_http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/leading-article-your-vote-should-be-absolutely-secret-1091905.html

 

[PaulR]

Hardly new news. I can remember thinking the same thing when I saw the clerk writing the numbers on a sheet the first time I voted in 1971.

I suspect that if you tear the number off then it's counted as a spoiled ballot paper as there will be no proof that it's the genuine item any more.

 

[Channel Hopper]

You are right, but there will be plenty of people who think the idea of putting a bit of marked paper into a box behind a screen is for the purpose of anonymity when it is really for show.


It also undermines the absolute right to freedom of association which I am sure has been mentioned as part of many a manifesto before now (Even paper spoilers get their idea of politics put on a government database - somewhere).
If no party in the elections is against recording data of the individual against a political preference, then where has that freedom gone ?

 

[Topper]

Yes myself and the Mrs discussed this at 8.30am, they know before you vote essentially, but if they could be bothered they can backtrack it will be added to your secret MI5 profile

 

[pgh13]

Yes, I've often thought that. I noticed today that the number is right in the middle on the back so can't really do much about that

 

[DishDick]

To put your minds at rest. The voters roll that is marked is locked away afterwards, and so are the ballot papers. Only a judge can make a local authority match up the ballot paper to the register.

I do think there are serious weaknesses in our system both in person and postal. The practice of calling out your name when you ask for your ballot paper - incase someone in the station knows you are not that person - why not ask for id like a passport, surely thats safer. And what about a small ink die on one finger so you are not able to vote more than once, like in iraq.

 

[Channel Hopper]

To put your minds at rest. The voters roll that is marked is locked away afterwards, and so are the ballot papers. Only a judge can make a local authority match up the ballot paper to the register.

So this data could never be mislaid on the 5.43 train out of Waterloo then. Phew !