Potential for Postal Ballot Fraud

I was interviewed for local BBC 'Look North' programme the other day where they covered potential problems. Jonathan Rew, Returning Officer for Gateshead Council was also interviewed. They seem to think that there will be no problems. The fact that it is impossible to police any, never mind every potential piece of domestic coercion, influence or intimidation has not even been addressed. This therefore, makes the postal ballot neither safe nor secret. The integrity of our democratic process is at stake and is being undermined by one political party intent on undermining this and our elections will become a farce worthy of a banana republic and not of the founding fathers of modern democracy.

Police invited to Whitehall postal vote meeting

Hélène Mulholland
Tuesday April 19, 2005

A police chief has been invited to take part in Whitehall talks this Thursday on how best to police postal voting, as opposition politicians maintain pressure on the system's openness to fraud.

The talks will coincide with a legal challenge by the deputy leader of Birmingham city council. John Hemming will call at the high court for swift changes to rules surrounding postal voting to prevent ballot-rigging in next month's general election.

The Constitutional Affairs Department said Thursday's meeting was routine and not a crisis response to fears of electoral fraud. Concern has been heightened since an electoral court discovered "widespread" postal voting fraud during last year's local elections in Birmingham.

Although the meeting is routine, a departmental spokesman admitted that the decision to invite a representative from the Association of Chief Police Officers was unprecedented and reflected concerns that the postal voting system required greater safeguards.

A representative from the ACPO has been invited to join a panel consisting of Sam Younger, chairman of the electoral commission, David Monks, representing the returning officers, and Adam Crozier, chief executive of the Royal Mail. The panel meets regularly with the permanent secretary at the Department of Constitutional Affairs during the course of a general election to coordinate activities.

The departmental spokesman said: "It is right to say the postal voting has been an issue of public concern and the very least we need to do is have a chat with people who can do something about it. [Judge Richard] Mawrey's criticism was that the police did not take the issue seriously enough."

Sitting at a special election court, Richard Mawrey QC found "massive, systematic and organised" fraud in the election of six Labour councillors in Birmingham, whose elections he declared void. He said there were no effective safeguards in place to protect postal ballots from fraud.

Mr Mawrey also criticised Birmingham police's handling of allegations of electoral fraud at the time of the poll.

Mr Mawrey's ruling has prompted a call to put in place immediate safeguards to prevent postal vote fraud.

Liberal Democrat councillor John Hemming, who is deputy leader at Birmingham city council, will go to the high court on Thursday to start legal proceedings to seek a judicial review into electoral procedures supporting the May 5 general election.

He will ask the judge - expected to be Mr Justice Collins, sitting in London - to rule that he has an arguable case which should go to a full hearing as a matter of urgency.

Mr Hemming, who is the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Birmingham Yardley, said he had the backing of his party and was taking action because of the "very real likelihood" that ballots in dozens of inner city constituencies nationwide would be corrupted by vote rigging.

The Electoral Commission anticipates that around 6.5 million voters (15% of those voting) will opt to send their vote by post, almost four times as many as the numbers who opted for postal voting in the last general election (3.9%).

Mr Hemming says the absence of a secure postal vote contravenes the Human Rights Act because it compromises the secret ballot.

As there is little time to make radical changes to the system, Mr Hemming is calling for postal votes cast in this election to be counted separately from non-postal votes; for political parties to be allowed to check application forms for postal votes; and for the period in which election petitions may be raised be increased from 21 days to two months.

Mr Hemmings's crusade echoes a similar call made yesterday by the Respect parliamentary hopeful and former Labour MP George Galloway, who yesterday threatened to go to the high court in a bid to suspend postal voting across the country.

The right of any elector to apply for postal vote was introduced shortly before the 2001 election. Until then, only people who could prove they could not make it to the ballot box in person could apply for a postal vote.