At 00:37 30/04/2010 +0100, Ted Harding wrote:
>Evening all!
>I have just heard the news about the Labour candidate for
>Bristol East who revealed "a sample of postal votes on the
>social networking website Twitter". See:
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/england/8652724.stm
>"She explained: 'On hearing the results of a random and unscientific
>sample of postal votes, I posted them on Twitter.'"
>So, it appears, people have been looking at postal votes before
>the count?
>How come that is possible? Anyone know?
Very good question!
I wonder if the BBC have lost a crucial 'R' - i.e. that what they meant was
"a random and unscientific sample of postal voteRs" ? That would be the
postal vote equivalent of an 'exit poll' and I can well imagine that the
revealing/publication of that prior to the end of all voting next Thursday
evening would be unlawful.
If it really meant what it says (no 'R'), as well as being very
surprising/worrying (per Ted's implication), we would surely also have to
be asking how a (truly) random sample of real postal votes could be
'unscientific'.
... just my first thoughts about this!
Kind Regards,
John
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