Polls apart as SNP aims to swap ballot booth for postbox
‘People don’t feel they have choice’
PLANS for online, telephone and nationwide postal voting have been unveiled in moves that could signal the end of the polling booth. The Scottish Government has launched a consultation aimed at i mproving turnout, which includes extending the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds in Holyrood and local government elections.
In the 2012 council elections, only 39.1 per cent voted – 10 per cent less than previous years. And the 50.6 per cent who voted in the Scottish parliament elections in 2011 was more than 3 per cent down on 2007.
But while the Scottish Government is proposing a radical overhaul, critics warn the changes would do nothing to tackle voter apathy.
And there are fears a growing reliance on electronic and postal voting will increase the threat of fraud.
Alex Runswick, of the Unlock Democracy campaign group, said: ‘Governments are always keen to look to electoral administration to increase turnout, but the answers to why people don’t vote are primarily political. You can make voting as easy as you want, but if people don’t feel they have a choice, or that they can’t influence the issues that matter to them, they won’t turn out to vote.
‘Of all the methods tested to date, only postal voting has been shown to consistently increase turnout – and this is also a method of voting that has been shown to be vulnerable to fraud.
‘There are good reasons for wanting to make voting easier and more accessible, but they are unlikely to increase turn- out, and concerns about the security of the ballot have to be addressed.’
Scottish Labour said it was up to all parties to make politics relevant to people. Drew Smith MSP said: ‘Any means of ensuring that people are able to vote as easily as possible, while still ensuring the fundamental integrity of our electoral system should be considered.
‘But ultimately the challenge lies with political parties and politicians to make politics relevant to people. We need to examine the reasons for voter turn-out dropping, and to ask how our political system can turn around that decline.’
The changes would not be introduced in time for the Scottish referendum, although that has already been extended to include 16 and 17-year-olds.
The Scotland’s Electoral Future consultation paper says polling booths could be abolished altogether: ‘One way would be to have no polling stations and instead provide that everyone on the electoral register gets a postal ballot paper vote delivered to them as a matter of course.’
Local Government Minister Derek Mackay said: ‘I want to see how we can strengthen and improve our electoral processes and encourage wider democratic engagement.
‘Voter turnout for local government and Scottish parliament elections has been in decline, as in other developed countries, and we are determined to challenge that trend.
‘Locally and nationally, it is important that every effort is made to increase voter participation, and this consultation proposes a number of ambitious measures to help us to do that.’