Counting down, before I head Down Under. Good news is, wifey managed to squeeze a few days off, so she’ll be joining me when the course finishes for a few days on the Gold Coast. However, it being winter in this time of the year, I guess we can pretty much rule out diving.
~sigh~
More D&D Madness
Finally made Level 4 on my cleric. Somehow, clerics are really popular on the servers ~ I suppose everybody needs a good medic while on adventures, much better than health insurance :p
Voting Day
Well, today’s the day ~ we went down to the polling centre earlier and cast out votes. However, I did notice one thing: Why is there a serial number on my balloting slip? And since the polling official takes down my sequence number and records it against my issued balloting slip, doesn’t that mean that my vote can be retrieved and traced back to me?
Disturbing thoughts until i came back and checked the Elections Department Website. On the section on Secrecy, I found this:
“Serial numbers on ballot papers enable strict accounting of all ballot papers issued and cast. That way, the number of papers found in the ballot box at the end of the election can be reconciled with the number of papers issued during the poll and the number of papers stocked before the poll began. This is a means to deal with the threat of ballot boxes being stuffed with false papers.
Ballot papers have to be numbered to provide evidence if there is an allegation of impersonation, i.e. that a voter has cast his vote pretending to be someone else. This is done if the court orders so, by matching the suspicious ballot paper with the counterfoil, on which the voter’s registration number is recorded. If proved, the vote can then be subtracted from the declared election results. Without the ballot paper having a serial number, it will be difficult to establish such an allegation, and to adjust the declared election results accordingly….
…After the count, all ballot papers and their counterfoils have to be sealed in the Supreme Court vault for 6 months, after which all the ballot papers and other election documents are destroyed. During those 6 months, these documents can only be retrieved by court order. The court will issue such an order only if it is satisfied that a vote has been fraudulently cast and the result of the election may be affected as a result. Our courts have issued no such order since elections have been held here since 1948.
The ballot paper number is there to protect the integrity of the democratic process, and not to undermine the secrecy of the vote.
The ballot paper number is still a feature of UK parliamentary and local government elections.”
Oh. So, I guess the next question would be: Do you trust your government, Citizen?
Strangely enough, my answer is “Yes“
