Postal Ballot Fraudsters...too many eyes watching you now!

Officials suspended over 1,000 unopened postal votes
By Nick Britten, The Daily Telegraph

Two council officials have been suspended after an estimated 1,000 unopened postal votes for last year's local elections in Birmingham were found stuffed in a box at the council's election office.

The envelopes are thought to have been hidden away after someone realised soon after last June's election that they had not been entered. One of those suspended is John Owen, the elections officer and one of the country's leading election experts.

The discovery is certain to raise more questions about the vulnerability of the postal voting system, recently criticised as an "open invitation to fraud" by an election court judge. It will also embarrass government officials trying to restore public faith ahead of the General Election.

Six Labour councillors in Birmingham were suspended 10 days ago after being found guilty of rigging the election in two wards, Aston and Bordesley Green. The judge, Richard Mawley, QC, condemned the system and the Government's attempt to tackle widespread corruption.

The latest episode came after John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader of Birmingham city council, received a tip-off on Tuesday from a member of staff in the elections office that the box was in an archive room.

Mr Hemming immediately called a meeting with the returning officer and the police, after which the West Midlands fraud squad, the council's chief executive and its chief legal officer carried out a raid.

Mr Hemming said: "A contact told me that there had been 'Envelope 4s' mislaid during the local elections and not counted. A senior official had requested the votes be burnt once they realised a serious mistake had been made.

"But the people who should have followed that order felt uneasy and stashed them away in a box instead. I was told that on the fourth floor of the elections office, in the archive room, there was a box with 200 Envelope 4s in it."

Envelope 4s are large brown envelopes used to hold postal votes dropped off at polling stations. They normally contain several ballot papers.

Mr Hemming said: "I didn't think anything could surprise me after recent events but we went round and, lo and behold, there was an orange crate high up on a shelf with all these unopened envelopes in it.

"This is more incompetence than fraud, but voters have been disenfranchised and it again casts doubt on the postal voting system. Clearly something very wrong has gone on, which is disturbing."

The missing ballots were believed to cover between 10 and 15 wards, and so are unlikely to have directly influenced a result. They were removed from the elections office and taken to Birmingham's Council House, where they remain unopened.

The council's chief executive, Lin Homer, said: "In accordance with normal city council internal procedures, I have suspended two officers from duty as a consequence of the allegations made."

The investigation is likely to take a week. The Electoral Commission said that it was advising the council on what to do.

A spokesman said: "The returning officer has requested advice from the Electoral Commission in matters relating to electoral law in this incident and we will be helping her as far as we can.

"The normal procedure for challenging an election result is to lodge a protest with the election petitions office, but that has to be done within 21 days of the vote.

"I don't think there are any precedents should any candidate wish to question the result after this problem has come to light."

West Midlands Police said that unspecified documents had been seized, but stressed that it had not launched a formal investigation.

A force spokesman said: "We have provided and are providing support to the acting returning officer. It would appear that this is an internal council matter, but if criminal matters are identified we will carry out an investigation."

In the light of the recent controversy, political parties on the council are considering a request made by the fraud squad to enter the offices in Birmingham during the general election campaign, without a search warrant, in order to check that postal votes are being dealt with properly.

Around 53,000 people in Birmingham have registered for a postal vote for the general election.

However, with three weeks to go until the deadline for postal vote applications, officials expect the final number to be higher.