John Lettice in the Register has the lowdown. Basically this is an updated document which has hardly changed in any significant way. OSS remains a possibility but it's unlikely we'll see any new initiatives out of this policy.
The policy document [PDF]
The Electoral Reform Society's Lewis Baston and Ken Ritchie have released an excellent report 'Turning out or turning off?' which examines the issues surrounding political disengagement, particularly as expressed through low voter turnout. It's a really great piece, easy to read, well informed and it covers all the main issues from compulsory voting to the role of the media.
They argue that e-voting should continue to be gently piloted but that the 2006 target for an electronic general election should abandoned. Hurrah!
The best idea in the report, in my view, is that major election days should be public holidays. Let's have a sense of occasion… marching bands, flag waving, fun fairs, fancy dress – the works. Then people will know that the election is happening, that it's important and that loads of people care because they're out there celebrating their vote.
As the report says…
Some have argued that in Britain we work too hard and should have more public holidays. If we are to move in this direction, surely there is a case for not more bank holidays but for elections holidays – a day off work giving people time to exercise their democratic rights.
Not only would this be fun… but we wouldn't need to create e-voting or postal voting systems for busy people, we could all relax and walk together to our polling station. Who's in?
The report can be downloaded from the ERS website [PDF]
First reports of e-voting problems have begun rolling in from Florida. The game is afoot and it won't be long before troubles are being found across the states. I won't be exhaustively posting to each news item in this blog. Others are doing it so well there's no point repeating the effort.
Check out: * Kim Alexander's Blog RSS feed * Louise Ferguson's Blog RSS feed
and you'll be set for the election.
I will, of course, post my thoughts and comments as big issues arise. It's sad because the US election already feels like watching a horrible car pile up you know is going to happen all in very slow motion.
The details are sketchy to say the least but Silicon.com is reporting that the Greater London Authority is looking to introduce e-voting for the mayoral elections in 2008 This would be a major leap from their current use of electronic counting of paper ballots. Silicon.com state that all channels are being considered (the Internet, telephone, mobile phone, text messaging, e-voting booths and digital TV). If a by-election or referendum popped up before 2008 then they might use the systems early. Lucky London.
The article notes that the counting contract alone cost £5m this year. That’s a lot of taxpayer cash for what?
Unfortunately a leader by Silicon.com raises some of the cost and security issues but argues that we will have to embrace e-voting. Why? Let me quote the final part of the leader in full:
But this is a technology which has to be embraced and the scepticism which surrounds all voting means we should be building in a fairly high tolerance to criticism threshold.
By 2008 the technology and the means of identity verification should be robust enough to guarantee a fairly flawless e-voting system.
We have to hope the knowledge and the implementation process also doesn’t let it down.
Because underpinning any e-voting rollout is the obvious fact it is a government IT project – and enough has been written in the past about the fact that is almost a by-word for ‘over budget, over time and flawed’.
So risking going over-budget with precious tax money is ok because we must embrace the technology? Hmmm. Perhaps by 2008 the major problems with e-voting will have been addressed. Perhaps. But the Greater London Authority is buying the voting systems this or next year so they will have yesterday’s technology tomorrow. Not good.
The Guardian has launched a rather bizarre but very interesting project to try and ensure Kerry comes out top in the US elections. Operation Clark County is a website where visitors submit their email address and are given the address of a voter in… Clark County, Ohio. This is a highly marginal county in a highly marginal state which could be decisive in what looks to be a knife edge result. So you get the address, write the voter a letter (persuading them to vote Kerry hopefully though the Guardian doesn't say this) and more people will vote potentially.
Robin Grant expands on the project on perfect.co.uk, they've filtered out registered Democrats and Republicans from the list to increase the impact of the letters. It's a weird idea, nice use of the web but I'm a little suspicious of 'outsiders' trying to influence the election of a sovereign state. But then US politics affects the world like no other country's can at the moment. Well whatever the rights or wrongs I would love to see the faces of those Clark County voters when they open a letter from a Limey they've never met!
The US Commission for Presidential Debates is a cosy little organisation co-owned by the Republicans and Democrats. So no surprise that third-party candidates don't get a voice. They should of course get a chance to broaden spectrum of arguments the American people hear – so they tried to serve papers to such effect on the Commission. However all over the country they were prevented from serving the legal documents by security guards. In fact the Libertarian and Green presidential candidates were arrested as they tried to serve the papers… a totally unacceptable denial of due process in my view.
Just posted on Ideal Government…
Assuming Government want more people to take part in consultations then putting consultations online is 'a good thing'. Online consultations are often easier to run, more flexible and more likely to garner responses. Sending an email is much easier than responding to a paper-based consultation. Paper-based consultation processes usually involve, in my experience, the following steps:
Online consultations, if done right, can consist of:
Such an abbreviated process is likely to draw in people who haven't previously participated in consultations, or even any political activity. However one challenge is that once these newcomers have done one consultation they may not return for another. Why? Because often it's impossible to see what impact their responses had. At the very least respondents want to see their arguments acknowledged in a summary of submissions. But truly people submit to consultations because they want to make a difference!
Politics is a game of negotiations and compromises between a wide number of interests. However people participating in consultations are not provided with this context. Their expectations are raised to the level that their lone voice will have a meaningful impact. But if the consultation has 7,000 responses and is for a policy at the pre-legislative stage it's going to be very hard for the respondent to see what impact they have had in any outcomes that do emerge.
So online consultations need to do the following to ensure that participants don't go away disappointed but keep engaging in political activities:
Music and Shatner do not mix well, as anyone who has had the misfortunate to experience Kirk’s previous forays into singing will know.
But… I was tooling around on the iTunes Music Store and came across his new album, “Has Been”, whilst trying to track down Blondie and Outkast. I did a double take. My mouse pointer hovered… and I clicked.
£7.99 later and I now actually own (if you can own AAC rights-managed files) some of Shatner’s music. It’s bizarre but very strangely compelling. Ben Folds is in charge of the musical bits, Shatner talks through songs with a touching clarity and honesty which is hard to explain. Some of the tracks also have singing from artists like Aimee Mann and Joe Jackson. As a huge Mann fan (thanks to Magnolia) I had no trouble taking the plunge. Plus the first track is Pulp’s “Common People”… superb!
You may just like it… Has Been
Jason Kitcat 