One polling reform I would welcome

Posted on October 30, 2009 by bobpiper

I agree with much of the thrust of this article in the Times this morning. We should really be looking at ways in which we can increase participation in elections by introducing measures that would make it easier to vote, such as workplace or shopping centre polling stations and weekend polling.
One thing I would definitely revisit though are the ridiculously long hours the polling stations are open for. At one time in local elections, for instance, the polling stations used to operate from 8.am until 9.pm. A few years ago it was decided to make the hours the same as for a general election and they are now open from seven in the morning until ten at night.
It has had absolutely no positive impact on turnout figures whatsoever.
As someone who has spent lonely hours at polling stations waiting to greet the rushing hoards I can say for certain that in our neck of the woods hardly anyone other than the odd insomniac votes between 7 and 8 in the morning. And with elections taking place in May, the polls are deathly quiet between 9pm and 10pm. During this hour the polling clerks twiddle their thumbs whilst they could be getting the count underway, and the candidates and helpers scuttle around in the dark a a last futile effort to prise people away from their cocoa and get them out to participate in the democratic process.
18210943_00be6e4b62.jpg
(photo via Flikr from Kagey_b)

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to One polling reform I would welcome

  1. Harry Barnes says:
    October 30, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    Stage one towards a decent voting system is to ensure that everyone who qualifies to vote is placed upon their local electoral registers. Some 2 million get missed. As the numbers missing from registers are much higher amongst ethic minorities, the poor, the rootless and those in bed-sitter land; this means that there is a serious maldistribution of the numbers involved. This has a harmful impact on the drawing of Constituency Boundaries.
    This is even a more serious matter than Sunderland messing up its penalties and other scoring chances against Aston Villa.

    Reply
  2. Bob says:
    October 30, 2009 at 10:10 pm

    Harry, I thought of you on Tuesday. I was going to blog about it… but deferred out of respect.
    Nice to hear from you.

    Reply
  3. Johnny Lilburne says:
    November 1, 2009 at 2:04 am

    “the rushing hoards”
    Can hoards rush? Hordes, surely. The day someone creates a spelin chekur that deals effectively with homophones I’ll be a happy man.
    Pedantry aside, the only way to engage the electorate is to offer them politicians with policies worth voting for. It’s going to take a lot of hard work by the good politicians over many years to recover any trust they once had.
    The alternative is compulsory voting and it’s really not very good at all.
    Campaigns for voter registration by high profile activists may have some effect. Frank Zappa used to set up voter registration booths at his concerts, for example.

    Reply
  4. Bob says:
    November 1, 2009 at 8:50 am

    John… sod it… it was supposed to be “rushing whores”.

    Reply
  5. John Lilburne says:
    November 3, 2009 at 3:26 am

    No worries, mate, despite over 35 years behind the keyboard, man and boy, I still make the same errors myself.

    Reply