Attitudes to Changing the Voting Process
- These results are taken from phase 1 of a panel survey conducted by MORI for the Electoral Commission (Link to the survey's home page)
- MORI interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,801 adults aged 18+ across the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland)
- The sample included a "booster" sample of 301 ethnic minority respondents
- Interviews were conducted by telephone on 9-15 May 2001
- Data are weighted to the known population profile
- Results are based on all respondents unless otherwise stated
- An '*' indicates a finding of less than 0.5%, but greater than zero
- Where percentages do not add up to exactly 100% this may be due to computer rounding, the exclusion of "don't knows" or to multiple answers
Q7 I am going to read out a number of suggestions that have been made for encouraging people to vote at General Elections. Please tell me which one or two, if any, would be most likely to encourage you personally to vote at the next General Election.
| % | |
|---|---|
| Voting at weekends | 9 |
| Having polling stations at the Supermarket | 27 |
| Polling stations being open 24 hours | 23 |
| Voting from home using the Internet | 21 |
| Voting from home using the telephone | 36 |
| Voting by post | 16 |
| It depends | 4 |
| Don't know | 10 |
Q8 Have you applied for a postal or proxy vote at the General Election or do you intend to do so?
| % | |
|---|---|
| Yes, have applied postal | 3 |
| Yes, have applied proxy | 1 |
| Yes, intend to apply postal | 4 |
| Yes, intend to apply proxy | 1 |
| No | 90 |
| Don't know | 1 |
Q9 It has been suggested by some people that in future General Elections, not the forthcoming one, voting in person at polling stations is replaced wholly with voting by other methods such as voting by post, by telephone and by the internet. Do you support or oppose this idea?
| % | |
|---|---|
| Strongly support | 28 |
| Tend to support | 25 |
| Neither support nor oppose | 11 |
| Tend to oppose | 15 |
| Strongly oppose | 19 |
| Don't know | 2 |
Q10a Why do you say that? Base: All who support voting by other methods (960)
| % | |
|---|---|
| Convenience/ease of voting | 52 |
| Will encourage more people to vote | 17 |
| Disabled/homebound people will have more access to vote | 9 |
| It's the way things are going/moving with the times | 4 |
| Good idea to have optional voting methods | 4 |
| Saves time | 3 |
| More privacy | 1 |
| Can be difficult to make it to the polling stations | 1 |
| Schools will not have to be closed on election day | 1 |
| None/nothing/no reason | 2 |
| Other | 10 |
| Don't know | 4 |
Q10b Why do you say that? Base: All who oppose voting by other methods (616)
| % | |
|---|---|
| People should make the effort/prefer going to the polling station | 46 |
| Would be open to fraud/hard to check identity of voter | 31 |
| It's traditional | 8 |
| Not everyone has access to Internet/phone | 8 |
| Should have the choice | 6 |
| A lot of people wouldn't vote | 5 |
| It would stop elderly people voting | 2 |
| It would promote laziness | 2 |
| Other | 7 |
| Don't know | 2 |
