David Hick

Surely our postal voting system for local body elections is past “best before” date. With such a low return we have nothing to lose and need to do something else.

Not only do we continue have a poor voting rate, but there are numerous flaws in the system.

Just the fact that they are mailed out produces inherent security issues. I wonder how many papers have been left (unsecured) sitting in spider web infested mailboxes for the past month?

There is also no system to prove who filled in the voting paper and there is also nothing to stop one person from a household filling in multiple papers. Or even worse, someone coming across unused voting papers and using them.

And if you mail in your voting paper, like I did, there is no way to be sure that the paper even made the ballot box.

So, surely it is time to change to an online voting system.

We trust our banks and other organisations with security. We pay our rates online.

There must be “off the shelf” systems available, or how hard can it be to design something?

An online voting platform for local body elections could be used as a forerunner to Parliament elections.

Anyway, congratulations to the successfully elected people, and to those who didn’t vote, don’t complain and moan about your rates, potholes, rubbish and other council matters.

You missed your opportunity this time.