Resources > voting and e-voting user experience: UK

Articles in the press: usability and more

Democracy needs good design by Louise Ferguson (Open Democracy, 19 October 2004)

London reveals e-voting plans (Electric News, 15 October 2004)
The Greater London Authority apparently has plans to introduce a range of voting channels for the mayoral election in 2008.

Scrap all-postal voting, says watchdog (The Guardian, 27 August 2004)

Watchdog rejects all-postal votes (BBC Online, 27 August 2004)

Demand for probe into postal ballot vote-rigging (The Guardian, 27 June 2004)
'We think that these papers have got into the hands of people who have "volunteered" to fill them out for the voter'.

Postal ballot 'cost candidate seat in Europe' (The Guardian, 16 June 2004) - Includes quotes form news broadcaster Job Snow, and several MPs, about the difficulty of using the ballots in the 2004 elections.

500,000 votes not counted (Evening Standard, 15 June 2004)
This is a somewhat inflated account of the problems in London. As undervotes are counted in with invalid votes - according to the London Elects press office - in the present statistics gathering exercise (as they were in 2000 also), we cannot know how serious the invalid vote problem is in London. But it's likely that the majority of these votes were perfectly valid undervotes (i.e. a vote was only cast for the first choice candidate).

Voting made complicated (The Guardian, 3 June 2004)
Catherine Bennett takes a look at the voting literature provided to London voters.

Confusion reigns on 'Super Thursday' (The Guardian, 2 June 2004)
Considers the processes involved in all-postal voting.

UK gov planning switch to e-voting for 2007? (The Register, 11 May 2004)

Labour push for 'Pop Idol' text vote (The Sunday Times, 9 May 2004)

Voting against internet elections (The Guardian, 12 February 2004)

Hackers Threaten to Short-Circuit E-Voting Plans (originally published in The Times, 15 November 2003)

Does the UK need e-voting? (eGov Monitor, 4 August 2003)

UK e-voting pilots deeply flawed (The Register, 31 July 2003)

Fraud potential found in e-voting systems (The Register, 26 July 2002)

Why e-voting is a bad idea (BBC, 19 July 2003)

Consultancy pins e-voting hopes on UK (Guardian, 10 July 2003)

Comment: Experimental e-voting leaves nasty aftertaste
(IT Week, 31 May 2003)

Why I'll boycott e-voting in the May elections (ZDNet, 28 April 2003)

Cross culture (Guardian, 30 April)

E-voting 'would increase turnout' (Guardian, 24 April 2003)

E-vote early, e-vote often? (Guardian, 17 April 2003)

Digital TV to play e-voting role (ZDNet, 17 April 2003)

Doubts over the new democracy (BBC, 17 February 2003)

E-voting: another UK government gimmick? (The Register, 30 January 2003)

England tests e-voting (Government Technology, November 2002)

Government to push e-voting (ZDNet, 7 October 2002)

Government 'a long way off' e-voting target (Guardian, 1 August 2002)

Mixed verdict on e-voting trials (BBC, 1 August 2002)

Online elections by 2007, says e-Envoy (vnunet, 4 April 2002)

Whitehall warned to treat e-voting with caution (EETimesUK, 7 February 2002)

Electronic government, democracy and voting - links to many press articles - some of which are dead.

Return to main Resources page.