ForumGarden

This is from another forum I use but it brings up a question I have often wondered about--why does your voting slip have a number on it???

An anonymous letter, published in Brighton’s Evening Argus (16th June 2001), reports verbatim a conversation between a female interviewer for a local radio station and a senior police officer, discussing the Oldham race riots. The conversation, which was broadcast, was taken down by a listener, sent to the Argus and is copied below:

Police Officer: Yes, we know who these extremists are but until they actually break the law there is little we can do.

Interviewer: How do you know who they are?

Police Officer: Oh! By the electoral register.

Interviewer: How?

Police Officer: Well, they obviously need to vote to get their choice of candidate elected, so we can get their names from the electoral slips and compare them with the studs.

Interviewer: I’m sorry, but how can you do that? Surely the slips are not marked? Surely they are secret?

Police Officer: Oh no. We can check every election slip against the polling cards, which are written on the stub when the election slips are torn off. Obviously, we’re not interested in the three big parties – only the extremists. We have nothing to do with the majorities.

Interviewer: I’m sorry, I still can’t believe our votes are not secret. How can you justify this?

The Police Officer then quoted some Act or other which I (the interviewer) did not catch ¦



So are we voting in secret or does "someone" keep track???

the voting slips dont have numbers on them............registration documents do.....they can tell if you voted, not who you voted for

ive just returned my postal vote....the slip certainly didnt have a number on it

This is the first i have heard of this.

I would imagine the only way the police know of any bnp extremists would be by the leaked bnp membership list which was illegal and the leaker was prosecuted. I can't see how they can prosecute the leaker in a court of law for breaching the imformation act yet have a police officer state this to the public. It sounds to me another scare tactic to ward off votes for the bnp.

I don't care one way or the other should anyone know who i am voting for as it happens but i can see this would scare a few people into not voting.

I went to vote today and I asked why they were copying my registration number on to my voting slips as I assumed my vote was between the ballot box and me.

They said it was to combat fraud and the registration sheets were sealed at the end of voting and could only be unsealed by a court of law.