Rig an election?
 

How difficult would it be to rig an election, not so's to make one party win but to take votes away from another party.

The way U.K. elections work is everyone on the electoral role who wants to vote goes to the poling station, gets a voting slip with names and a box by each name. They have to mark an X against one name only (in pencil would you believe). Any marks outside the box or marking more than one gets the vote nullified.

Any thoughts gentlemen?

Canada uses paper ballots, or did when last I was there, when the ballot boxes are opened there are representatives from each party present to observe the process. Unless there was some sort of collusion I should think deliberate markup of a ballot to nullify it would be difficult.

Here we used to have a mark sense ballot that used black markers, then it went through an optical reader. I trusted that a damnsight more than the computer we have switched to as there is no paper trail.

You really should have directed this question to Katherine Harris of Florida fame.:p

I'd HOPE in a 1st world country it would be hard.

We used punchcards till recently, same idea as the black marks, more than one or in the wrong spot it would be discarded.

Had an old Democrat tell me that when they were counted (there were members of both parties present) some would glue a pinhead under their fingernail. Come across a vote for the other guy, prick, and you've got an invalid ballot :)

Pete

Well, either both sides did this or it's just BS. Otherwise someone would have been nailed for it.

Don't get me wrong, vote tampering is a time-honored tradition here and elsewhere. The thing is little tricks like people spoiling ballots seem somehow quaint when compared to the computerized vote flipping and voter caging that Republicans used in the last three presidential elections.

John

BS it's BS :)

You must've not grown up in a Machine town my friend. A little dig with a lot of truth - these Dem run rust belt cities are run by corruption. Transparency in government - lol! Although I guess you could say that since everyone knows...

If the Dems didn't cry like babies over slightly out of alignment punchcards (which I had the SAME EXACT issue that election (Ohios used punch ballots for a long time), and I guarentee I voted for my choice, it was a far cry from rocket science), and couldn't accept the fact that a lot of old folks LIKE Buchanan, we'd still have good old punchcards.

Politics 101 for me, when I was about 13 or so my neighbor ran for mayor so we volunteered. The first thing the city prosecutor taught us was how to palm the other guys' literature at local stores :)

Pete

Tangled mess.
 

I don't think any U.K. election in living memory has been tangled as this one. Hung parliament, it's turned into an auction with the third in line offering an alliance with either of the others depending on how many sweeties it gets.

I reckon the only thing that's stopped the £ going down the pan is the money markets attention being drawn to the total financial shambles in Greece. Their people don't like banks either but seem to go for more direct action than we do.

http://www.google.com/search?q=greek...ed=0CCcQqwQwAw


"What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born"

Maybe Barry Maguire got it right, only not the way he thought.

One of the women in that fire was pregnant as well. The strange part is it started as a peaceful protest but there are admitted anarchists there who want to bring down the government, any government.

We had the same thing here with the G8 in Seattle.

John

The Lib Dems are playing this for all they can get. Politics as usual. Trouble is the party they're closest to ideologically, Labour, needs more than just the Liberal Democrats to form a governing coalition. What do they need, another dozen seats more or less? None of the minority parties has that many. They'd need to attract a handful of the minnows to make a go of it.

And the Euro's in trouble. Goldman Sachs et al are out to sink it so they can make a pile on the short. Friggin' leaches!

John

Well, Gordon Brown has resigned and the Queen has invited David Cameron (Conservative) to form a government. Brown couldn't come to terms with the Lib Dems' leader Nick Clegg who seems to have been behaving pretty cynically throughout.

I wonder how much better Cameron will do dealing with Clegg, given the more significant ideological differences between them. My guess is Cameron will be calling for new elections before the year is out.

John

Well Clegg looks to becoming Deputy PM so I guess he sold his soul.

I don't think they can.
 

Last I'd heard both sides of the coalition have agreed 4 year fixed term parliaments, the only exception being if they face a vote of "no confidence" with 55% of MPs voting against them. I don't think this can last; any government facing anything over 50% is going to lose it's authority.

It's the first true coalition government we've had for 70 years. If it works, it could be like John F. Kennedy president, and Barrac Obama vice president.

On the other hand, it could be Abbot & Costello.........

If a Right/Center Left coalition can be made to work we might be in for some very interesting times indeed!

You're right, by the way. I believe they've set a specific date for the next elections (5 years and not 4, I think). That would mean a "no confidence" vote would be the only way to get rid of these folks is they turn out to be a rum bunch.

John

Rot setting in?
 

Hi all,

Quote Boreas: I wonder how much better Cameron will do dealing with Clegg?

There are already stresses on the way plus those built in (Lib Dems against Nuclear power and want to scrap Trident, Tories in favor of keeping both). I've never understood this obsession with getting new bombs. Old missiles aren't like old cars, they've not been worn out but that's not the point. If anyone pushes the button, from that moment no matter how you respond, deterence has failed.

People in Greece are still letting off steam while Sarcozy is threatening to pull France out of the Euro. At least we had the sense to keep the £ Sterling.

Ok ok, we've wandered a bit from "how to rig an election" but that's the great thing about pub conversations, once started they wander all over the place.

One interesting side effect of your election, it has people here questioning why ours takes so long and why even after a year the transition is still not finished. It is small wonder that government here works at all what with all the apointments and holds.

A better question is how easy is to vote 5 or 10 times in one election? I am working on how to prove this without getting my ass put in jail. I think it's easy. I will find out and I will publish.
Steve

This ought to be interesting!