Wise words from government as it criticises e-voting

A switch to electronic voting has been ruled out by the government – just weeks after a Labour Party report said it backed the shake-up.

Sam Gyimah, the constitution minister, told MPs that such a voting revolution was unwise because there was no way to “check an error”.

The verdict came as Gyimah slightly increased the proportion of voters announced as being successfully matched with existing central and local databases, ahead of the switch to individual electoral registration (IER).

During question time in the House of Commons, the minister said 80% of names had been matched, edging up on the 78% originally found on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) records. [UKAuthority.com]

For more on why electronic voting is a bad idea, see my piece E-voting coming back to life?, including why anyone who says ‘but we do banking online so voting online should be fine’ doesn’t understand the crucial and massive difference between the two.