Bulletin Board (believe it or not!)

17-Jan-07:  Everyone knows an election is only as honest as the accuracy of the roll insofar that all names are genuinely of people who really exist and are living there. The burning question in the outcome of any election is how many are not honest for various reasons. For example over three years I have had letters addressed in over 30 different names, of people who never lived there, arrive at my flat in London . These people, who may or may not exist, can now all get postal votes on demand in the UK .   

One of Britain's most experienced commentators, Michael Pinto-Duschinsky writes in the Times (15 February 2006) that one of its reporters, Dominic Kennedy discovered under FOI that there are roughly seven million errors in the electoral rolls in England and Wales despite voters being expected to re-enrol every year. 

The British Electoral Commission he said 'was obliged to admit its roll was riddled with mistakes.' It has never investigated the inclusion of invalid names, which makes voting possible. It has played down the problem of fraud in inner cities.

Just how many mistakes do we have on our roll? The NSW Electoral Commission has created a wonderful opportunity to test this. It is posting cards to every voter in NSW for the forthcoming State election in March. It could count the numbers of return-to-sender mail for every electorate and publish the figures. 

3-Jan-07:  NSW is out of luck this year with state, federal and council elections all due in the one year. No doubt election-watchers will be as frustrated as ever with the fact scrutineers who are supposed to watch everything in the counting of votes will no longer be able to watch anything. Just as someone wrote back in 1954:

"How would it be if in the next election for members of State Parliaments, the Federal House of Representatives or Senate Senate election, the ballot was open for a fortnight and the ballot papers were posted to each voter who had a fortnight to return it; if the candidates had no scrutineers: if no one knew where the ballot papers were kept; and if there was no identification of the ballot paper or the voter? Why the thing is simply laughable!'

"In addition everyone knows that it is precisely in the postal aspects of state and federal ballots (ie persons unable to attend the booth) that corruption does occur. These postal ballots open the way to deliberate fraud and systematic malpractice (anon pamphlet circa 1954 Mitchell Library Sydney )."  
26-Dec-06:  We did a double take on the double count of 6,000 votes in the November Legislative Council election, keyed into the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) computer by mistake, so the VEC said, as the DLP and ALP were locked into a battle which could affect the balance of power in the Victorian Parliament for or against the previous ALP Bracks government.  We were reminded of a computer breakdown over the weekend in the final stages of the NSW Legislative Council in the previous NSW State election, when Pauline Hanson appeared to be winning a seat but lost out when the count continued. Amazing how often seats are won and lost by a handful of late votes or 'errors'.

We believe electoral politics is a mine field where many a politician can crash from a very very small mine. Why? Because any corruption in the electoral process, however small, undermines the honesty by which true democracy survives. That explains why the  Sydney Morning Herald (22 December 2006) treats the following story on an apparently small matter with gravity.  "The State Opposition (NSW) called on Housing Minister Cherie Burton to stand down from the cabinet pending the outcome of investigations into the theft of money from her electoral office. Police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption have begun interviewing Labor Party and Parliament House. A key question was whether Ms Burton alerted Parliament to the missing money, billed for a printing contract, or whether Parliament uncovered the discrepancy. Ms Burton said she had reported it."