Blair at centre of new row over postal votes

Sandra Laville, Hugh Muir and Peter Hetherington
Friday April 15, 2005 The Guardian

Blair at centre of new row over postal votes

Tony Blair is promoting his party's "farming" of postal vote applications in a national mailshot which defies advice from returning officers that there should be no third party involvement in the process.

Returning officers want political parties to withdraw from the postal voting process in the run up to the general election, in an attempt to restore public confidence in a system which has been undermined by recent fraud cases in Birmingham and Blackburn.

Enclosed in Mr Blair's letter to electors across the country is an application form for a postal vote. On the rear of the form is printed a freepost address in Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for the "Postal Votes Centre" where completed forms should be sent.

On visiting the address, the Guardian discovered the centre was in fact Labour's communication headquarters for the election campaign. Inside a nondescript office, staff sat behind piles of completed postal vote applications - all of which returning officers say should have been sent direct to them by voters except in exceptional circumstances.

Mr Blair is not alone in acting contrary to their advice. Michael Howard, in a personal letter to voters, asks them to return their application forms to a national party centre in Dartford, Kent, while Charles Kennedy requests electors to return the forms to the party's local offices.

With 11 days to go until the deadline to apply for a postal vote passes, a Guardian survey of more than 20 key marginal constituencies shows that postal voting is soaring in crucial seats with small majorities, with applications in some areas up more than 300% since the last election.

In Haltemprice and Howden, where shadow home secretary David Davis is defending a 1,903 majority from the Liberal Democrats, applications have risen from 2,000 in 2001 to 9,800. In the Labour marginal of Kettering, one of the most hotly contested seats in the country, applications have reached 16,000, compared to 3,000 last time.

In Surrey South West, where the Conservatives are defending an 861 majority from the Lib Dems, 10,000 electors have applied to vote by post so far, amounting to 10% of the total poll. In neighbouring Guildford - Lib Dem majority: 538 - there have been more than 14,000 applications, compared to just over 3,000 in 2001. There have been predictions that the total number of postal votes cast in this election could reach six million from a 26m turnout.

The exponential rise in postal vote applications means that returning officers are keen to ensure the process is seen to be as independent as possible. While the practice of channelling applications via the parties is not illegal, the Electoral Commission and Association of Chief Police Officers are advising against it "because of the risks of suspicions that the application may be altered and the risk of the application form being delayed or lost in transit".

The guidelines say "the local registration officer's address should be the preferred address given for the return of application forms". But they go on to say that if an intermediary address is used, forms should be dispatched unaltered to the relevant electoral registration officer's address within two working days of receipt.

It emerged yesterday that the commission had wanted a clear cut instruction to political parties that all application forms should be sent back directly to the local electoral returning officer.

But, after failing to reach agreement with the parties, the commission watered down the demand, so the code only "advises" that this should be done.

Malcolm Dumper, executive director of the Association of Electoral Administrators, said: "The political parties are farming these applications but if the process goes wrong we have to defend it. All the parties need to do is to give people the information about postal voting and tell them where they can download the application on a website and how they can send it in direct.

"Now that there has been this confidence issue and there are suspicions about there being too many people in the process, returning officers would be well advised to contact agents and get them and brief them as soon as they can."

Robin Pellow, acting deputy returning officer for Surrey South West, said political parties had been repeatedly told not to have application forms sent back to them. "We don't want anything done that could undermine public confidence in the process," he said. "As a returning officer we want them [completed application forms] to come straight to us."

Tony Travers, a political analyst at the London School of Economics, said: "What we are seeing is a greater assault on the use of the postal vote which has got out of control.

"The parties are being political and the returning officers are being non-political. Anyone who believes in clean democracy would be on the side of the returning officers."

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Thomas, of Greater Manchester Police, an expert in electoral fraud, said if there was a change in the law this was one aspect which should be addressed.

Last night, all three parties said they would continue with the practice. They said their procedures were drawn up in consultation with the Electoral Commission and that they passed the forms on in two days.

· Serious delays in distributing leaflets to men and women in the armed forces reminding them how to vote are to be investigated by the electoral commission, writes Richard Norton