by Andrew HolmanWith changes brought about by the Electoral Administration Act 2006, it won't be the responsibility of presiding officers to test the capacity of potential voters any more. Thankfully it got rid of several bits of old legislation.
Not that this law was ever much used, but its good to see that more is being done to get people with learning disabilities to vote this year than ever before and it's good to see the Electoral Commission taking their equal opportunity policy seriously and paying for a lot of it. But will it make any difference? Will 2010 be the year when we will see as high a percentage of people with learning disabilities voting as the rest of the population? We have a long way to go for that to happen: in the 2001 general election only 31% of people with learning disabilities voted compared with a national turnout of 59% so we shall see.
It may be more difficult for blind people to vote for the right candidate. In our area at least, the template sent to polling stations turns out to be the wrong size for the ballot papers! So it doesn't stand a chance of lining up properly. It seems to have been based on the large paper used as a poster on the wall.
We have a polling station in our office grounds, I offered them this site as the previous one didn't stand a chance of being accessible, placed on a bank of grass down the road. All they need do now is bring a ramp that is useable - well until they do we cobbled together a step from old bricks and a plank and I've offered them ours if need be.
The most interesting story, and one that I need to check in all of our EasyRead information about voting, seems to be based on the change to personality politics brought about by the TV debates and so on. We have now had 3 middle aged people come to vote and ask where they vote for 'the big boys' or such like. I say middle aged just because I had thought they would have known from previous elections.
Anyway, the officer has now developed a better answer than when he was caught off guard first thing this morning, and explains that you have to vote for a local candidate and then the big boy leader of the winning party gets to be PM.
It may be more difficult for blind people to vote for the right candidate. In our area at least, the template sent to polling stations turns out to be the wrong size for the ballot papers! So it doesn't stand a chance of lining up properly. It seems to have been based on the large paper used as a poster on the wall.
We have a polling station in our office grounds, I offered them this site as the previous one didn't stand a chance of being accessible, placed on a bank of grass down the road. All they need do now is bring a ramp that is useable - well until they do we cobbled together a step from old bricks and a plank and I've offered them ours if need be.
The most interesting story, and one that I need to check in all of our EasyRead information about voting, seems to be based on the change to personality politics brought about by the TV debates and so on. We have now had 3 middle aged people come to vote and ask where they vote for 'the big boys' or such like. I say middle aged just because I had thought they would have known from previous elections.
Anyway, the officer has now developed a better answer than when he was caught off guard first thing this morning, and explains that you have to vote for a local candidate and then the big boy leader of the winning party gets to be PM.
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