European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:33 pm on 21 October 2003.

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Photo of Chris Leslie Chris Leslie Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Constitutional Affairs) 12:33, 21 October 2003

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

The Bill's purpose is to allow continuation of the Government's successful programme of piloting innovative electoral processes—including all-postal voting, electronic voting and other electoral innovations—at the forthcoming European elections and, where they are held, at local elections next year. Piloting new voting mechanisms is not done for its own sake. It is innovation for a purpose: to engage the maximum number of voters in the elections, and to make their participation more easy and convenient.

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Jason Kitcat
Posted on 26 May 2004 2:38 pm (Report this annotation)

By this stage it was already clear from the Electoral Commission's own report that e-voting didn't boost turnout (see http://www.j-dom.org/h/n/WRITING/nonfict/ALL/34/).

Indeed the government repeatedly steps back from the turnout argument in consultation documents on e-voting only to then turn round and revive them once more.

Of course voting shouldn't be difficult but making it electronic won't boost turnout (here's why http://www.j-dom.org/h/n/WRITING/nonfict/ALL/43/) and will risk the election results being subverted. More on why e-voting isn't secure is available at: http://www.j-dom.org/h/n/WRITING/nonfict/ALL/50//