Tuesday, May 4, 2010

voting hung

Which kind of economy would you prefer us to have?

Germany: Largest economy in Europe, already out of recession, hung parliament since 1961.
Greece: Bankrupt, draconian cuts causing civil unrest, electoral system designed to prevent hung parliaments.

The question comes from Unlock Democracy.

There is a Conundrum Farm near Berwick On Tweed, adjacent to the border. Here's the puzzle. Scotland, hung parliament since 1999, England, maybe having a last minute panic against it. When we went to Berwick, the grass and the road, and further away the shops, looked the same both sides of the line.

I want an economy where minorities' needs have to be listened to, around what type of jobs and education we can cope with. So that some care is taken to make it work out right, to society's gain. Hung or nearly hung parliament is best for pushing these concerns.

Polling day: I'm annoyed to hear 2 workmates today saying they missed the registering deadline and so they think they can't vote. This link shows they can still vote at their former addresses: http://www.runnymede.gov.uk/portal/site/elections/menuitem.253bb9aafce9ffd18bfbfb10af8ca028/
and they wouldn't believe it. They thought they couldn't vote. When one is keenly supporting the same side as me, too: grrr. The way the deadline for registering has been publicised or not, too much at the last minute, has not been clear enough with enough advance notice for all the folks it would catch, that is an item of democratic deficit, even for NTs, and it could be even more so for folks who take messages literally. Will aspies, except the ones who are really keen on politics, remember when they move home, or when an election is called, to check on their voter registration? When the system for doing that, replacing the old reliance on the annual canvass, is fairly new? There should be a message given out to do it, every time anyone registers a change of address.

Results day: I think these concerns about the clarity of messages to voters have been borne out shockingly by all these stories from the English cities of voters getting stuck in long queues and shut out at 10 o'clock and missing their chance. Just as passionately unfair to them as to all the 17 year olds who are emotionally abused by missing their vote by very short margins of age. You can imagine an aspie voter faithfully taking literally the public information that they can turn up any time before 10 o'clock and vote. Any contrary conclusion would have to be reached in an unwritten way.

I fear all unforseen events that can happen during a day to knock out your schedule, and how big the hurt would be of losing your vote because of a disrupted day. So I vote as early as possible. First thing.