Voted

With Swindon being one of the trial areas for internet and telephone voting, I have this evening cast my vote online in what is otherwise Thursday’s local election. Rather surprisingly, there still seemed to be an option for delivering a spoilt ballot paper, as one could select too many candidates which, the site warned, would result in none of the votes being counted… not that I tested this functionality, so I can’t say whether it would actually have allowed this.

Having tried it once, I’ll be returning to conventional voting in future years if possible. Voting at home just doesn’t have the same sense of occasion, doesn’t have the feel of ‘doing democracy’ that going to a polling station, standing in a wooden booth and putting a cross in a box with a blunt, short stumpy pencil does.