Election Methodologies Discussion WARNING: HERE BE DRAGONS!!!

[Redrobes]

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BTW - is election going well. I have another question about that. In our elections we get a election card which we take to the polls. The clerk takes that and finds you on the list then from a thick pad rips off a vote slip / ballot paper and notes down the number of it (from the pad stubs) next to your name on the roster - but the number is also printed on the back of the ballot paper. The vote slip is then punched with a set of holes which somehow authenticate it (or presumably tie it to that polling station and that pad stub) and you vote. Now name and vote slip are tied together so our vote is not anonymous. I read on 'El Reg' today about the US voter clerk who implied that the US one was anonymous. Can you ask whether that is the case or do they have numbered ballot papers like we do ? I always though it sucked that ours wasn't.