Political

E-voting: my letter to Total Politics on what really happened

Published in the October edition:

In talking about introducing internet voting in the UK, Melanie Batley called the trials in the UK “a great success” (Total Politics, August 2011). I beg to differ: they were costly and produced no significant increase in turnout.

There are many criticisms that can be made of the last Labour government and its rhetoric about evidence-based policy-making, but on this point it can’t be faulted. It tried it, saw that it didn’t work to raise turnout and dropped it.

Far from being a reason for the public to demand that the government resurrections the idea, the experience of the UK’s trials are a reason, for once, for the public to praise politicians for making the right decision and declining to go on spending money on a faulty policy.

Yours, etc.

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