Sharp U-turn on all-postal voting

Dec 10 2004
By Zoe Hughes Political Editor, The Journal

All-postal voting could be reinstated following the success of the North-East assembly referendum, ministers declared in an apparent U-turn last night.
Local government minister Nick Raynsford refused to accept calls to scrap plans for more all-postal ballots despite watchdogs warning the system had been "marred by problems" during the summer's local and European polls in the North.
After those votes, the Electoral Commission urged ministers to drop elections where voters were only allowed postal ballot forms - a recommendation hastily agreed to by John Prescott as a way of preventing regional assembly referendums in the North-West and Yorkshire and the Humber.
But in an apparent policy reversal yesterday, Mr Raynsford said the turnout of almost 48pc in the North-East assembly vote on November 4 had helped "underline" the value of all-postal voting. Now the Government says it will keep the door open to all-postal elections saying it was not persuaded by the arguments against.
"We value the important work of the Electoral Commission in moving towards the modernisation of the electoral process," Mr Raynsford explained before saying the watchdog had "generated a useful debate" on how to improve elections.
It was only in August that the Commission recommended that all-postal voting schemes be scrapped, following problems in the massive trial across the entire North of England during the June 10 local and European elections.
There were delays in sending out ballot papers, the system was criticised as too confusing and in the North-East European poll, 18,744 votes were discounted because forms were filled incorrectly.
Last night Sunderland metric martyr and anti-assembly campaigner Neil Herron said serious questions now had to be asked about the future of the Electoral Commission. "The Government should make it quite clear it has ignored every single piece of advice and information from the Commission," he said.
"If they are going to carry on like this regardless, then they may as well scrap the Electoral Commission and give taxpayers back their money. The chairman (Sam Younger) should now be offering his resignation in protest."
Mr Younger, however, backed the Government's response, saying ministers were adopting 70pc of their proposals.
Gateshead East MP Joyce Quin said the North-East had proved all-postal voting could be conducted successfully.
She said: "The Commission really should have taken much greater account in its deliberations on the experiences of Gateshead and Sunderland, which have had all-postal ballots longer than anyone else."