Voter Fraud

BPSCG said:
Karl/Flo -

What happens if you move before your voting card is mailed to you, and you don't notify the proper authorities?
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You have to come back to your old constituency to vote. If that's where you're on the list, that's where you vote. Doesn't matter if you don't have the physical card for any reason, turn up and give the name and address you're registered with, and you get to vote.

Yes, OK someone could fraudulently use a card sent to their address like that, but it's not an opportunity for systematic, large-scale fraud. One vote seldom decides a constituency.

Rolfe.
 
The last general election occured a year and a half after my flatmate moved out, but I got a voting card for him as well as my own. I probably could have used it to cast another vote, but I decided to be a good boy and resisted the temptation. Besides, it wouldn't have made any difference, in my constituency you could run a donkey as the Labour candidate and it'd win.

Mind you, Hartlepool elected a monkey!
 
Nikk said:
Quite correct.

A possible defect in the system is that it is not very difficult to get on the voter roll if you are a non citizen. But conversely any private individual, group, or official body suspecting fraud would find it pretty easy to carry out simple checks and alert the authorities.

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Don't you have privacy laws that would prevent this? Going by name or appearence would probably be some -ism or other, to be avoided at all costs.

I think that in practice there are no controls regarding the voting of non-citizens.
 
wollery said:
The last general election occured a year and a half after my flatmate moved out, but I got a voting card for him as well as my own. I probably could have used it to cast another vote, but I decided to be a good boy and resisted the temptation. Besides, it wouldn't have made any difference, in my constituency you could run a donkey as the Labour candidate and it'd win.

Mind you, Hartlepool elected a monkey!
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Yeah, but that was just to make up for hanging the last one. :D
 
Jaggy Bunnet said:
Yeah, but that was just to make up for hanging the last one. :D
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That wasn't a monkey, it was a Frenchman! :D
 
BPSCG said:
Karl/Flo -

What happens if you move before your voting card is mailed to you, and you don't notify the proper authorities?
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You vote in the constituency you're registered in, which is not necessarily the one you're residing in, provided you have family, a property, or you were born there. For example, I used to vote in my parent's constituency when I was living in Switzerland, although the actual physical voting was done at the consulate in Geneva. You can also vote by correspondance or by proxy.

As you can imagine, there is ample occasion for fraud ;)

There's a story about a woman, in Corsica, being caught in a cemetary the day after an election, beating on a grave with a large hammer and insulting the man buried there. The priest stops and scolds her, and she answers "The da** ba***d did vote on Sunday, but he didn't show up to say hello to his wife and children !" .
 
Flo said:
he was elected, or hanged ? ;)
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Sometime in the dim and distant past (17th or 18th century I think) there was a shipwreck off the coast and a live monkey was washed up on the beach at Hartlepool. The locals hanged it believing it to be a French spy! :p
 
wollery said:
Sometime in the dim and distant past (17th or 18th century I think) there was a shipwreck off the coast and a live monkey was washed up on the beach at Hartlepool. The locals hanged it believing it to be a French spy! :p
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Well, it was covered in hair and didn't speak English. It was a mistake anyone could have made :D

(disappears sharply before Flo arrives)
 
Flo said:
There's a story about a woman, in Corsica, being caught in a cemetary the day after an election, beating on a grave with a large hammer and insulting the man buried there. The priest stops and scolds her, and she answers "The da** ba***d did vote on Sunday, but he didn't show up to say hello to his wife and children !" .
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Thinking about it, the main opportunity for systematic fraud would be figuring out who on the voters roll is virtually certain not to vote, and then just have someone of approximately the right sex turn up at the polling station and announce that's who he/she is. Political parties who do a lot of canvassing and keep records of voters' likely intentions (or recent demise) could be in a position to do that.

The problem is, it would be risky. You'd be banking on none of these people actually deciding to vote - when of course fraud would be detected because you can't vote twice with the same identity, also banking on nobody at the polling station either knowing the person by sight, or knowing that he was housebound/dead, which is quite a big risk in such a community-based exercise. And it would be impossible to keep a large-scale exercise quiet - there would be a very high chance of someone figuring out what was going on, and going to the authorities. Problem is, in Corsica, the mafioso probably are the authorities!

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
Thinking about it, the main opportunity for systematic fraud would be.....................
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My last two votes have been by a compulsory postal system. The latest (regional assembly) a slightly different affirmation system whith unlike the first does not need a witness.

Basically.

You put you cross against your preferred candidate on the official form .
Put that form into envelope A.
Put envelope A along with a signed affirmation (of who you are) form C into Envelope B.
Seal Envelope B.
Reopen Envelope B, Turn affirmation form C around so that the return address now appears in the envelope B window.
Worry that the envelope has now been obviously opened.
Think "oh well, I am sure that there won't be one vote in it."
Reseal. (Perhaps the last few steps might just be me.)
Pop in the post.

In this fraud is easier if you can get hold of their forms. but you need to ensure that the person whose form you have does not request a replacement
 
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