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| News · Satire · Spoof · Parody · Humour · John Prescott |
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| You are staring at: Home > News | 11th February |
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 Election: e-voting cock-up, Bill Gates and Pacman elected 1 May 2003 The government's attempts to encourage a higher election turnout through electronic voting have suffered at setback tonight, after severe faults were found with a supposedly secure web site being used to cast votes. The problems arose when electors attempted to vote using the web site, which had not been expected. The result was that Pacman and Bill Gates were accidentally elected as councillors in Northampton. "We designed and built the web site, but we never expected anyone to actually use it," explained apologetic web developer Douglas Ramsbottom. "All we were told was it had to look pretty. Nobody said anything about letting people vote through it. I didn't think anyone would want to." When voters tried to access the site they were confronted with a mass of error messages and requests to download additional software. Those who did manage to get through to the page where votes could be cast were given "test data" in place of the real candidates' names, which consisted of Microsoft founder "Pacman" and legendary computer games character Bill Gates. Dodging further masses of error messages and random crashing, voters then proceeded to select "up to three" of two candidates, both of whom were described as Independents. When the votes were counted, it was found that the turnout had reached a record low – probably due to the site's unreliability – and that both Pacman and Mr Gates had "won". No votes were recorded for the real candidates. However, the returning officer refused to grant the pixelated yellow blobs their seats. "Since neither Mr Gates nor ‘Pacman' were not on the official list of candidates, all votes recorded for them must be regarded as spoiled ballot papers," he explained. "No other votes were recorded so the result of this election must be null and void." Bill Gates, who tonight was said to be racing around several hundred computer screens avoiding monsters and collecting points, has declined to comment. A new ballot, using traditional pencils, paper and boxes, will take place next week. Related articles New Tory information minister hails election victory 2 May 2003 British Apathy Party triumphs in elections 2 May 2003 Election: e-voting cock-up, Bill Gates and Pacman elected 1 May 2003 Labour councillor's election punch not as effective as John Prescott's 30 Apr 2003 Local elections promise to be most exciting thing since last local elections 28 Apr 2003
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