As expected, the general election has been called for Thursday 6 May. Obviously, given the role of returning officer, making predictions for the election is a ‘no-go' area.
However, for those with local elections, the much higher turnout – in Stratford's case, at least 20% – will impact on the electoral outcome.
It is widely reported that the public don't regard politicians as highly as in the past, so will turnout drop even more than it has in recent years? We will know that answer in the early hours of 7 May.
The elections are a wonderful opportunity to show how well local government runs a service – the elections are just that service – and there should be as much choice as possible for the electorate to cast their vote.
Having had the experience of running electoral pilots, I feel voting via the Internet should be an option available to all voters, particularly those casting their votes from overseas.
Changes introduced to postal voting have led to the use of information technology to assist in checking signatures, but the benefits of technology are not being used to their fullest in the running of elections, and that, to me, is a shame.
Why can we not have online electoral registers with the advent of broadband? This would do away with the need for tellers and the vast majority of complaints received on polling day!
Although technology can go wrong, and that has been personal experience in an electoral pilot in 2007, the biggest barrier to modernising elections is likely to be the views of politicians.
It has often been said that using technology will take away the ‘buzz of expectation' in the counting hall on election night. That is probably true, but does that really matter, if the elections could be made less prone to fraud through the use of technology?
In short, notwithstanding the different views about the relative merits of technology, elections can be run more effectively and provide better value for money by embracing appropriate technology, but until there is a change of approach nationally, we will just have to stock up on those pencils for polling day!
