Voting Safeguards

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HavocXphere

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You know that permanent blue-ish paint stuff they mark your thumb with if you vote?

With previous elections it took lots of scrubbing & a couple of days to remove most of it, leaving a feint mark only.

Just saw my mom remove hers completely in <5 seconds with a tissue and some methylated spirits.:eek:

So much for the IEC doing its job. Can't say I'm surprised though after this story.:(
 
HavocXphere said:
You know that permanent blue-ish paint stuff they mark your thumb with if you vote?

With previous elections it took lots of scrubbing & a couple of days to remove most of it, leaving a feint mark only.

Just saw my mom remove hers completely in <5 seconds with a tissue and some methylated spirits.:eek:

So much for the IEC doing its job. Can't say I'm surprised though after this story.:(
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You still won't be able to vote again, cos your name has been crossed off the list, and your ID book has been stamped. So yeah. No worries.
 
Washed mine off with nail brush and a bit of hand soap. Quick quick...
 
I also remember struggling like crazy to get the ink off last time round.
I was wiping down the kitchen counter with a wet cloth a half hour after voting when I noticed the mark smearing, so I rubbed at it lightly with the wet cloth (water only) and it came right off.

The purpose to the finger mark is so that you don't go vote with multiple IDs. It's to stop a physical body from being allowed to vote twice (by whatever means). It's the only physical person-based safeguard we have. The rest are all based on the documents you hand them.

I am also rather disappointed by this. Home Affairs themselves have admitted that there are many South Africans with multiple IDs.
 
AniV said:
I also remember struggling like crazy to get the ink off last time round.
I was wiping down the kitchen counter with a wet cloth a half hour after voting when I noticed the mark smearing, so I rubbed at it lightly with the wet cloth (water only) and it came right off.

The purpose to the finger mark is so that you don't go vote with multiple IDs. It's to stop a physical body from being allowed to vote twice (by whatever means). It's the only physical person-based safeguard we have. The rest are all based on the documents you hand them.

I am also rather disappointed by this. Home Affairs themselves have admitted that there are many South Africans with multiple IDs.
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Well what else do you propose, I really cannot think of any other physical safeguard, even with two Ids your name gets crossed off on the list.
 
schumi said:
Well what else do you propose, I really cannot think of any other physical safeguard, even with two Ids your name gets crossed off on the list.
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I assume he means ID's with different names

Wait until they want to tattoo a mark on you :p
 
I rubbed most of it off as soon as they put it on. They used a marker pen because they couldn't find the ink. And that little delay in looking for the ink caused them to open late.

The other thing that didn't work was the scanner. Our station didn't even have one and the other stations packed in trying to use them because the paper was incorrect - too thick. I wonder who got the tender to supply paper and ink to the IEC?
 
Garyvdh said:
You still won't be able to vote again, cos your name has been crossed off the list, and your ID book has been stamped. So yeah. No worries.
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Well at our voting station it worked like this , You queued to get your finger painted and name crossed of the list then you moved to another queue where they checked your finger for the black dot and you got your ID book stamped and recieved your three ballot papers, from there you could vote and leave. The electronic scanning machines were not in use so anyone with multiple ID books could keep coming back to the second queue with a fresh ID book and keep recieving ballot papers.
 
diesel said:
Well at our voting station it worked like this , You queued to get your finger painted and name crossed of the list then you moved to another queue where they checked your finger for the black dot and you got your ID book stamped and recieved your three ballot papers, from there you could vote and leave. The electronic scanning machines were not in use so anyone with multiple ID books could keep coming back to the second queue with a fresh ID book and keep recieving ballot papers.
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and when they see your name is already crossed off?
 
You get your name crossed off at the first queue, they cross your name off and mark your finger. The electronic scanning machine was sitting on the desk but not being used. when you done getting your name off the list you move to the second queue where they only check your finger and stamp your ID and give you ballot papers. So if you just keep coming back to the second queue with a fresh ID book they will keep stamping them and handing you ballot papers.
 
I remember last year being marked on the join between skin and nail, so half the dot was on my nail and half on my skin. That stuck quite strongly, especially the bit on the skin. This year my dot was entirely on my nail, and that just came right off. My colleagues that got marked half/half - their ink stuck. Another got it on the nail only, too, and hers also came right off.
I got my name crossed off the list, my nail marked, my ID stamped and was handed my TWO ballot papers all at the same time by 4 people seated together.
 
Garyvdh said:
You still won't be able to vote again, cos your name has been crossed off the list, and your ID book has been stamped. So yeah. No worries.
Click to expand...
The whole point of multiple layers of safeguards is to achieve extra security, not to simply go "thats alright, we'll rely on the other one".

Each safeguard you lose makes it easier to manipulate the results. We've already got the DA accusing the ANC of carting in supporters with buses (True or False, I dunno). Now this, and then the only barrier left is the ID documents...issued by our Home Affairs department which is of course corruption free & not at all influenced by the ANC.

I'm not saying the results were actually manipulated...but I'd feel a lot more comfortable if the safeguards were actually working...just in case. Remember there is big bucks & power at stake here for the parties.
 
How many people will be able to wash that off so that it is 100% gone, and then rejoin the voting queue (hoping that nobody recognises them as having been there before).
How many of those people have a valild second ID Book that has not been stamped?
How many of those people will be able to persuade the official to let them vote anyway despite their name having been crossed off?
Or if the IEC official is corrupt and allows them to proceed, how many of the other officials standing behind her or next to her, will not call a foul when they see that happening?

We are probably talking about ten people or so who might be able to pull this off successfully.
Hardly earth-shattering figures.
 
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