I voted at Pilgrim House and found the arrangements a bit slack. The polling box was soft green canvas, and when I went to “drop” mine in, it was so full, and the zip closer so soft and wide, that I could easily have reach in and fished out a handful of votes, with the exit RIGHT next to the “box”.
It was of course well within view of the people recording details and handing out the forms, but there was NO-ONE watching it! It appears that the electoral commission was attempting to save $$ by doubling up one of the tasks, so the lady ushering people in was perhaps also the security detail on the box.
It would actually have been easy to grab the whole box and run out the door with hundreds or thousands of votes, as there was no-one watching it and the people nearby were sitting behind tables.
When I told the lady at the door (when she had returned from the other side of the room) that I could easily have grabbed a handful of votes out, and she would have been none the wiser, she said, “Oh, OK, I’ll shake the box”.
It all felt a bit like a polling place in a country that wasn’t quite up to ensuring the democratic vote – rather than one of the world’s most developed and competent democracies.
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