24.05.10

Darren

Designing the perfect voting system

It may well have been the hot weather but more likely the fact Design Week called asking for a Voxpop quote, but last week debate in the studio raged over designing the perfect voting system for the next General Election. Here’s my response which Design Week printed, followed by the suggestions from Dusted staffers. See if you agree and let us know your thoughts.

Darren said…
We should modernise and include the channels and options people now use every day. A secure, web-enabled system that allows both Internet and mobile voting alongside more traditional methods, like post and local polling stations (with modern technology), would maximise ‘turnout’, accelerate the process and be all-inclusive. By implementing progressive multi-channel accessibility, user experience and data processing we may even keep up with the rest of the world! The result will then be truly representative.

Sarah said…
I would introduce a digital system with the option for postal votes and maybe the odd polling station still dotted around. Almost everyone has access to a computer so it makes sense. That would then give you the opportunity for having a great website that both details and summarises the various policies. So people could take a mini quiz to help them out if they know nothing about politics. There could be a fabulous, simple interface that summarises what each local candidate is promising and then one click takes you to the national issues that party stands for, a clear glossary of terms to explain technical terms and case studies that explore how life would theoretically change for various people under each potential party. There should also be an option to vote for a particular party but reject the current leader and force them to choose another.

Nick said…
I think that compulsory enrollment (registration) to vote should be enforced but not compulsory voting. Although I do not believe people should be forced to vote for a cause they do not agree with, I do think that a majority of people do not vote because they simply forget to register or don’t have time. By making registration compulsory this eliminates idleness and at least calls people to consider/ educate themselves on current affairs before voting or not voting.

David said…
Following the leaders debates on TV, the obvious answer is a Britain’s Got Talent style contest. Allowing people to vote online is perhaps more likely though. Would be more secure than postal votes and perhaps even ensure the turnout was greater than 65%

Matt said…
Let’s bring it bang up to date and let people cast votes via Twitter. Each candidate has their own #hashtag and the one topping the “trending topics” on Election Day becomes Prime Minister. Trouble is there is a real possibility it will be Justin Bieber

James said…

1. Electoral reform – proportional representation. Unfair this year that the Lib Dems got 10% more votes than last time yet lost seats
2. The actual voting experience – instructing people properly with well communicated graphics (it was not even clear at my polling station whether you should put a tick or cross next to persons name – many people were confused).
3. Also, why are we not voting via the Internet yet? Due to the massive queues some people got to vote this year – it would seem a good idea to introduce an internet voting system where each constituency gets its own site which people access and vote on. Then one central computer could gather the data and calculate the numbers more quickly.
4. Also opinion papers like the Sun should be banned from reporting on anything regarding the election.

Jamie said…
The perfect voting system would be a really simple, cool mobile device app (web based for those without) which presented a pic of the party leader, next to their top three principles, percentage of tax you’ll pay, and a scale of their corruption level (user vote). An alternative would be to go with the US model which consists of outspending your opponent’s ad budget!

Vilmar said…
I am going to use the Brazilian electoral system as a comparison, even though we have two different political systems – namely Parliamentary and Presidential. Voting in Brasil is compulsory, which apparently contradicts one of the Democratic principles based on citizens’ freewill but on the other hand it does push people to participate in the political process. I imagine it being extremely difficult for people in the UK to accept any bill in which they ‘ought to do anything out of their will. However, as exemplified in Brasil, the government decrees National Voting Day were people have the day off to vote. They go to the poll station in their vicinity where they are. The Electoral Authority delivers the electronic voting machines to all poll stations the night before and by morning they are all up and running; they form a nation-wide network feeding into high-security servers based in the capital, Brasília. There is virtually no paper involved in the process (apart from ballots that have to be put in place for the most isolated communities in the Amazon region and similar). It is all electronic. The results are ready within approximately 12hrs after the Election Day ends, and that’s for a country whose population is around 193 million people and counting (not all voters obviously but still…).

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