Ref. 28419-3THE latest cutting-edge technology, imported from the United States, will be used in Swindon next month for two by-elections.

All Government eyes will be on Swindon as it becomes the guinea pig for yet more experimental voting.

For the first time in Britain there will be two polling days for the by-elections in Central and Western wards.

The official polling day is Thursday, January 22. But on the Wednesday, voters in both wards will have the chance to vote the latest American way by touch-screen.

Also on the Wednesday, the residents of sheltered accommodation in the two wards will be able to vote on screen in their own homes.

All the votes cast either the old-fashioned way by ballot paper or on computer will be counted by machine, yet another innovation from the US, at the Civic Centre on the Thursday night.

The machine will replace the usual team of 20 counters. Now only two people will be required one to operate the counting machine and the other to be on standby should the other be ill.

The entire experiment, which will cost in the region of £50,000, will be funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott.

Alan Winchcombe, Swindon's electoral manager, said: "We have been chosen for this because Swindon is the acknowledged pacesetter in electoral reform.

"Swindon has become known as the e-voting capital of the UK through our innovative measures in recent council elections.

"But this is really exciting, ground-breaking stuff. There will be a huge amount of research to be undertaken because the Government will want to see if turnout was substantially increased."

The two polling stations chosen for on-screen voting on the Wednesday are the community centre in Emlyn Square (Central ward) and the Even Community Centre, Jennings Street, Rodbourne (Western Ward). These stations will be open between 8am and 6pm on the Wednesday.

"Anyone wish to make use of the Wednesday voting facilities must take their polling cards with them," explained Mr Winchcombe.

"The screens are about 18-inch square and ballot papers, with all the candidates' names, appear in image form. With a single touch a vote is cast. Another touch confirms the voter's selection. Full privacy is still maintained.

"All the electronic votes will be downloaded at the count on the Thursday night with the postal votes."

The visiting polling stations will spend three hours on the Wednesday in the nine sheltered accommodation homes six in Western and three in Central.

On the second day, there will be four polling stations open in each ward, from 8am to 9pm, for traditional voting.

The counting machine can handle folded and crumpled ballot-papers. It will also identify and spit out spoilt papers.

The high-tech equipment will arrive in Swindon from Washington on January 12, when a three-day training crash course for staff will begin.

In the meantime, letters will be sent from Mr Winchcombe to everyone entitled to vote, explaining everything in detail.

Council leader Mike Bawden (Con, Old Town and Lawns) believes that any method that encourages people to use their vote is worth a try.

"Voting is about people-power and the community's opportunity to decide who should make decisions for them over the direction the borough should take. So it's great that Swindon should be at the forefront of helping to change the nation for the better."

The Western by-election was caused by the death of Labour's Keith Small, father of the Labour group leader Kevin Small.

The by-election in Central is a result of the resignation of Labour's John Taylor.

The candidates standing are:

Western: Dale Heenan (Con), Tel Hudson (Lib/Dem), Des Moffatt (Lab), Michael Morton (UK Independence) and Raymond Smith (Green).

Central: Roderick Bluh (Con), Sinead Darker (Lab), Karsten Evans (Swindon Organisation for People Before Profit), John Hughes (Green), Andrew Newman (Socialist Alliance for Peace and Justice), Steven Ogbourne (UK Independence) and Rebecca Poole (Lib/Dem).

lA new generation of electronic voting equipment has been developed in the US following the uproar in Florida over the contested result in that state during the George W Bush versus Al Gore presidential election.

It is the state-of-the-art version that will be coming to Swindon after a few trial runs in minor elections in the US.

"We're assured that all the teething problems have been sorted," added Mr Winchcombe.

mlitchfield@newswilts.co.uk