Londoners' votes put at risk by Boris' bigwig

[ikri]

Boris Johnson's top official is headed for a clash with the elections watchdog over his personal decision to use electronic counting machines at the next London election - despite serious concerns over fraud and costs estimated by his own staff at £1.5m more than a manual count.

Following last year's mayoral election, the Electoral Commision registered "significant concerns about the use of e-counting for elections in the UK". Observers found discrepancies in the number of unspoilt ballot papers and the number of votes registered by the scanning machines.

The Commission then called on the GLA to carry out a cost versus benefit analysis of e-counting before committing to it again. This week's meeting was supposed to be a discussion of its conclusions - which included the finding that it cost an extra £1.5m compared to manual counting - but Boland had already made the decision on the basis of the time saved by e-counting.

Today, a spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission declined to comment on the GLA's move. She said the Commission would publish its response to the cost versus benefit analysis as planned next week.

So London is getting some expensive and largely unproven e-voting system that's going to cost £1.5m more than hand counting based on the belief that it will save time.

Wonder if Leo Boland is going to get a nice juicy directorship on the board of the chosen company in the near future.

I've no idea why Labour aren't all over this story, it should really be used to show how the Tory party will "save" the country money by making all the wrong choices and massively overspending.

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[LeftishBrit]

1. Oh no.

So Boris wants to turn London into Florida-without-the-sunshine?

[T_i_B]

2. "I've no idea why Labour aren't all over this story"

Possibly because they fancy abusing e-voting themselves?

It's more of a question why the UK press isn't all over this story. I would hope that this sort of thing gets the full scrutiny of the London Evening Standard but given how much of a Boris Johnson fan club that was the last time I looked that might be too much to ask.

Maybe somebody who's read the Evening Standard in the last couple of months will be able to fill us in on whether this story has received any coverage?

[TheBigotBasher]

3. Leo Boland is not a "Boris appointment"

he was appointed by the GLA and the Mayor. Electronic voting for London is a DCLG policy not a GLA or Mayoral policy.

[BolivarianHero]

4. That's easy as fuck to answer...

Even though the Tories peak at 40%, LieBlair would rather abuse the patronage power it gains by winning majorities (even if it means temporarily losing that power to the Tories every few years) than to reform the electoral system to ensure that the reality of the UK's being a leftist country is recognized with every election.

Since Churchill's death, nominally left-of-centre parties have won 55 - 70% of the popular vote in the UK, and yet LieBlair has done nothing to fix the electoral system.