Unsuppressed

[davidgillon]

 Just voted.

My heart sank when I checked my polling card last night and noticed it said "Portakabin at Balfour Junior Academy", rather than "Balfour Junior Academy.

Even without the portakabin the school is a kilometre away and tucked away in a maze of narrow streets, all reduced to single track by on-street parking, off a link (Gladstone Road) from the main road that is 1 in 6 or 1 in 7, 150m of 20m down one side of a valley and up the other, so totally non-accessible if you have a mobility impairment and don't have a vehicle.

When I got there about 3:30 the gate into the school was shut with lots of 'think kids' signs. I didn't see any hope of parking on the street in front of me, already wall-to-wall cars, but had seen a few spaces about 100m behind me, so turned around at the next junction and came back. At which point the gate was open so I drove in. (I now suspect it's sensor operated, but there's nothing to tell you that, and on polling day wouldn't you just lock it open if you had any sense?)

All half-dozen parking spaces were already full, with another half a dozen cars pulled up on the pavement. So I kept driving until I got to the building, at which point the number of kids running about on the road and on scooters or bikes with mums not stopping them had me thinking the school was open for the day - I checked their website, they weren't, but seriously, not a good place to let your kid play on the road with a constant stream of drivers who don't know the layout.

So I pulled up in front of the school, to the side of the projecting island in front of the entrance, got the chair out and rolled over to the portakabin (its spur of road was blocked off by no-parking cones). The ramp (at least there was one!) wasn't bad, but I nearly stalled out on the top lip. Handed over my polling card, made them ask for photo ID rather than just handing it over, made my comment about Tory voter suppression*, got my ballot slip and went to vote. Rather than the individual booths they've had inside the school, they had a single four space carousel, about a metre across, with mini-privacy screens to your front, but nothing to stop someone peering over your shoulder as they passed. It was at least wheelchair accessible, but with barely enough space to put your ballot slip down and vote.

I pushed on the carousel to back away, and the whole thing shifted back several inches - hope I didn't spoil anyone's ballot!

So I popped the ballot in the box and rolled back out to the car, where if anything there were even more kids, including secondary school kids apparently taking a shortcut through the grounds and crossing the road without looking. *Headdesk*

At which point I realised where I'd parked was so narrow there was no way I was three-point turning, I'd have to reverse out, around that projecting island, to get to somewhere with enough space to turn, all while keeping an eye out for kids - one mum did stop her 6yo on a scooter when she realised I was about to reverse away, but stopping him at the back of my car was less than ideal. I was so busy keeping an eye out for kids I hit the kerb twice, plus one of the parking cones isolating the portakabin.

Voting shouldn't be so stressful! And adequate and easily accessible parking should be a required part of polling station selection, especially for ones not easily accessible on foot.

* Mainland UK reliably gets a grand total of 1 or 2 cases of personation** in a general election (vs about 31m voters) , so the Tories brought in a requirement for photo-ID, which many young, elderly or disabled people simply don't have. The estimate was it stopped at least 14,000 people from voting at the local elections at the polling stations, and many more who just didn't turn up, and local elections only cover about a third of the country at a time. Jacob Rees-Mogg actually admitted at the Tory Party Conference that it was a deliberate attempt to exclude non-Tory voters.

** Pretending to be someone else to vote, contrary to Section 60 of The Representation Of The People Act, 1983.

Comments

[hilarita]

Our polling stoation is actually very good - it's a church hall with parking outside (and for such a small area that mostly people bike or walk to it, this being Cambridge), and it's level access from the street. The "booths" are extremely shit, and a strong breeze would knock them over, but one is at a lower height for wheelchair users. Mind, given that when we went to vote this morning, there was 1 other voter there, making it so that people couldn't see you vote wasn't a problem.

[davidgillon]

I initially missed the turn off the main road this afternoon - only ever take that road to vote, so drove further up to turn around and come back down. I was annoyed to notice that a church hall on the main road is also used as a polling station. It's a bit further away, 1,500m vs 1,000m, but it's completely level access.

[hilarita]

Oh yes and it's extremely shit that Labour aren't going to roll back voter ID requirements in England, Wales and Scotland, given the extremely low rate of personation issues here (as opposed to in NI). Really, if they're concerned about fraud, they should go after election agents and postal voting, where there have been some actual serious cases.

[lilysea]

Going after postal voting would have to be done really carefully so as to not disenfranchise chronically ill/Disabled people who rely on postal voting, though.

[davidgillon]

They did make changes to postal voting, shifting to primarily using a central online system to register, which needs you to upload a copy of your signature. Which of course is less accessible for many disabled people due to the digital divide. You can still do it by post, but I'll bet the days of that would have been numbered if the Tories were re-elected.

[davidgillon]

I should really have drawn a distinction between personation in person (ahem) and personation in postal voting, where, as you say, there have been a handful of serious cases. And which insisting on photo-ID didn't remotely affect.

[ethelmay]

We have 100% vote by mail in Washington State, and I think it's a great system.

[davidgillon]

Interesting, though 100% postal does raise the question of how you enable visually impaired voters. It's a problem in the polling booth, too, of course, but it's easier to ensure there's access to a template, or whatever access method is used, in every polling station, than to ensure it's available to every voter.

[ethelmay]

There are "vote centers" where people can receive assistance with voting. https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/elections/how-to-vote/ballots/return-my-ballot/vote-centers "Vote centers are available to register new voters, update current voter records, obtain a voter registration card and to provide assistance to voters who need help completing their ballot. Trained staff and specialized equipment are available to help voters with disabilities cast a private, independent ballot." I'm guessing you could also go there if, for example, your spouse had taken your mail-in ballot away and forged it. (You're always allowed to cast a provisional ballot in the event of some complication, too. If your other ballot then turns up it will be flagged and not counted.)

There are also some other accommodations available, such as large-print ballots, a voice recording of the voter information pamphlet, that kind of thing.

[davidgillon]

Interesting, but because you only have half a dozen "vote centres" for Seattle, that presumably means most people will end up going further to get support than they would if there was a local polling station, which is a bit perverse.

[ethelmay]

I think you can also cast an online ballot by some system that uses assistive technology. And a lot of people have a friend or family member they trust enough that they will let them help with a regular ballot (which can be signed with an X if you have two witnesses). But I don't know all the details.

[vass]

Fucking hell.