The current system of voting in the UK has many flaws which the potential change to AV will not address on its own. The referendum on 5th May should be seen as the start of a discussion about these flaws and how to address them.
For example, the default registration system is done by “the head of the household” who lists everyone of eligible age living at a specific address, why? Individual registration making each person responsible for registering to vote should be the preferred method.
Doing so will do away with another anomaly – people registering in two different locations, why? The “head of household” may register a child at university, meantime that child registers to vote at their student digs thus, ending up two votes. And its not just students that do this. Anyone can register at two or more different addresses and have multiple votes.
In addition, anyone can turn up at a polling station, quote a name and address and be given a ballot paper. There is no identity check. This leaves the poll open to voter fraud. Something I know happened back in 2003. There’s also problems with postal and proxy votes. Just how confident are we that someone casting these votes in a nursing or care home is casting them the way the individual wants.
The only way to prevent some of these inequities is to use a “national database” such as your National Insurance Number or Health Number when registering and casting your vote.
