Local elections get digital observers

Open Rights Group sends monitors to polling stations in England and Wales

Electoral observers in England an Wales will be monitoring May's local elections to make sure trials of electronic voting methods are going as planned.

The Open Rights Group, which campaigns for digital rights in the UK, is to send volunteers to monitor proceedings at 30 local authorities.

Under changes to the law in 2006, anybody is permitted to apply to the Electoral Commission to be an official observer for British elections, local or general. The group says it will inspect voting and tallying equipment at polling stations and counting venues.

The 3 May 2007 elections see thousands of seats in borough councils and local authorities up for re-election. All 31 Scottish elections used electronic counting, where voters mark a piece of paper that is read by a computer, rather than a human counter. Twelve of the local authorities in England are to engage in trials of either electronic voting, electronic counting, or a mixture of the two.

Jason Kitcat, the ORG's e-voting co-ordinator, told Computeractive that the idea came from American elections, in which activists have monitored elections to make sure that e-voting was working.

He said: "We want to see how the technology works, and look at it with an open mind. It's all new, and we want to provide feedback that's independent of the political parties and of government."

A representative of the Department for Constitutional Affairs said: "The Government welcomes election observers. The views of observers are valuable and we hope that they will enhance the official evaluation [of electronic polling] by the Electoral Commission."

The ORG says it also wants to find out whether electronic voting and counting might increase the risk of electoral fraud, and whether voting at home could compromise the secrecy of the ballot.