News

Verdict due on U.K.'s e-voting pilot

July 30, 2003

LONDON -- Electoral Commission Chairman Sam Younger will announce the results of an analysis of voting experiments by 59 local authorities, according to the BBC News.

More than 1.5 million people in 18 local council areas had the chance to take part in the voting trials in May.

These included voting by text message, Internet, electronic kiosk and digital TV. Other areas experimented with postal voting, polling over several days and mobile polling stations. See related stories, "E-voting gains ground in U.K. elections," "EU tests kiosks to simplify voting across Europe."

Younger will also publish recommendations as to whether the experiments should be used in future polls, including the next general election.

Initial analysis of the various experiments suggested that all-postal ballots had been particularly successful in driving up turnout to 50 percent when local polls normally see only 30 percent to 35 percent of voters exercising their right.

Early indications showed that electronic voting did not have the same impact, the article said.

There have been some concerns expressed that electoral fraud could rise under the new methods of voting.

Bill Cash, constitutional affairs spokesman, said, "We support measures to increase turnout, but we are concerned that there are insufficient safeguards in these postal voting and e-voting schemes against election fraud." See related story, "Researchers identify problems in electronic voting machines."