Abolish the polling booth

Today I voted in the local elections. Warm and sunny, the journey to my local polling station was a pleasant experience. But now imagine torrential rain outside and gale-force winds, with snow forecast this evening (all possible in an English spring). Add to these factors life’s usual distractions—would you gallantly step outside with your rain-soaked polling card for a local election? Who could blame you if the answer were no? Simon Cowell's X-Factor wouldn't have seen the light of day had he used Britain’s polling system for his voting model.

At the turn of the 20th century, Keynes happily noted how easy it was to order goods from all around the world to your front door. Today, you can even do your banking in bed, whilst talking to friends on the other side of the world for free. Yet despite these technological innovations, change appears to have eluded our politics. How many commuters to London ride a horse instead of taking the train? In an era where you can get your potatoes delivered to your door at the touch of a screen, it's ridiculous that you cannot vote with similar ease.

This matters. Our balloting system makes it less likely that citizens will participate in the democratic process, failing to have their say about the governing bodies whose policies shape their lives. On top of this, a disenfranchised vote market distorts the political parties' incentives, causing them to appeal disproportionately to the interests of the more valuable “will vote” voters—in particular, older voters—sometimes at the expense of policies that disadvantage younger citizens.

Aside from the democratic costs, our present polling system is time and labour intensive. It is hard to estimate the exact cost of polling stations, ballot papers, and pencils but what is certain is that, at present, each election costs more than designing a website and mobile app. It is a peculiarity of politics that a simple step that would benefit all parties and the public has not been taken.

How many votes are wasted because the current system makes it too hard to participate? No one knows. If it’s not too busy preparing to become a profit-making business, the Cabinet Office's Behavioural Insights Team (or “nudge” unit) might like to look into this. Voting is important, making it as simple as possible even more so. It's time to consign the physical polling booth to its place in history.