Wednesday, June 03, 2009

no thanks from KCC or KCC’s Kent TV


I see courtesy of Michael Child (thanks!), that Kent TV have produced a new version of their guide for first time voters which can be seen by clicking here.

The video is useful and informative particularly if like me you don’t vote every week but once every two of three years which is just about most of us.

I thank Kent Council for taking the trouble to produce these guides, however something needs to said about the manner or lack of manners shown by Kent Council, which we're regularly informed is a four star council.

As you will know if you read this blog regularly I alerted KCC and the Electoral Commission to what I considered a serious error in advice over their original video.

You might well imagine that to the trained bureaucrat, the suggest from an oik who shovels ballast for a living on our railways, that they’ve cocked up is nothing, if not unwelcome, particularly when that prole, has to speak s l o w l y for them to understand their error (more than once with one “officer”).

It was pleasing to see that the person I spoke to, at the Electoral Commission, was kind enough to send an email, thanking me for pointing out KCC’s Kent TV, error in giving advice which if taken could lead to some losing a vote.

No surprise that Kent Council don’t have the common courtesy to even acknowledged my input let alone thank me.

I shall send a copy of this to Peter Gilroy Kent Councils Chief Executive and see if he would like to comment. He might like to consider that neither of the “officers” I spoke, seemed to understand my complaint, or gave any impression that they took me seriously.

Finally if you’re a candidate in the County Elections and lose by a handful of votes, it may well be possible to force a fresh election if you can argue that the advice given by KCC’s TV effected the vote. I’m an not expert but you can contact the Electoral Commission who are there because “democracy matters” even in Kent.

PS I understand that it was the direct intervention of Cllr Chris Wells that finally got Kent TV to pull the misleading advice after I contacted him. See earlier post and comments

First mention Kent TV vote loser

Video removed

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