Reply #6: Scotsman, UK : The Black Box Holding Our Future [View All]

[MelissaB]

The Black Box Holding Our Future

By Chris Mead, PA Elections Editor

It may be a plain black box but it holds the nation’s future.

And it symbolises a key principle of our democracy – that the vote should be secret.

Other nations, including some in the third world, have introduced new technology to their democratic systems in the form of voting machines.

But, despite some trials in council contests, the mechanics of Britain’s General Election polling system is little changed from more than a century ago when the secret ballot came in.

The price of sticking to tradition is that while other states know who has won the election within minutes of close of poll, we sometimes have to wait until well into next day.


More: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4345336


(Sounds good to me. I can wait a little while to know that all the votes are counted.)