We seem to trust our electoral system in the UK. So much so that we let people vote simply by giving their name and address at polling centres – as long as it matches the local electoral register.
Hardly foolproof, is it? And postal voting is even less secure.
Good news, then, that the electoral commission is now calling for voters to show photo ID at polling stations in England.
Election watchdog demands action amid fears of Asian voter fraud is how the Telegraph reported the story last week.
The commission is setting up an enquiry into 16 council areas to examine the vulnerability of some South Asian communities – particularly Pakistani and Bangladeshi – to electoral fraud.
It’s a sensitive issue but an article on Yahoo News called Watchdog calls for voter ID amid S. Asian fraud fears gives a few reasons why, apart from a weak system, these communities might be a risk:
Mass postal-vote rigging took place in 2004 in one of the areas – Birmingham – where a tenth of the population is ethnic Pakistani.
Candidates, rather than voters, are committing the fraud.
The fraud may be easier because of porter English language skills in these communities.
The commission also wants to restrict use of postal votes.
What are other countries doing?
Brazil and Venezuela, along with many African nations, are using technology developed by private foreign companies. Biometrics is proving to be an efficient tool to authenticate voters at polling stations. Voters don’t have to remember to bring anything (they can be identified by fingerprints) and it can eliminate voter impersonation. The only prerequisite is biometric registration. Using portable devices, millions of people can be registered in this way in just months.
About Smartmatic
We’ve helped cast, record and transmit over 2.2 billion votes in more than 3,500 elections around the world with an integrated (hardware, software and management) approach we’ve been perfecting since 2004.
We’ve conducted the world’s fastest biometric registration project (over 5 million people in 75 days), as well as the first national election authenticated by biometrics
In Venezuela, we’ve been validating voters’ identities for the last four national elections. Our biometric authentication technology has mitigated identity fraud. It’s just one part of a system that includes other hardware, software and services – a voting system Jimmy Carter, whose organisation has witnessed 97 elections in 35 countries, has called the best in the world.
