Postal vote reforms unveiled
Fraudulent applications for postal votes could be made a criminal offence, under reforms being considered by the Government.
A bill will be brought forward in next week’s Queen’s speech to tighten up the postal voting system following widespread concerns during the general election that it was being abused.
Safeguards under consideration include requiring formal acknowledgements of all postal vote applications, increasing the amount of time administrators have to check applications by changing the postal vote deadline from six days to 11 days, and ensuring applications are returned to administrators not via political parties or community leaders.
The Electoral Administration Reform Bill will also consider replacing serial numbers on ballots with barcodes to allow fraudulent votes to be identified and removed, and for a replacement to be given to the genuine voter.
The Department for Constitutional Affairs is responding to problems exposed by a court case on postal vote abuse during last year’s local elections in Birmingham.
In his concluding remarks the presiding judge said the postal voting system was “wide open to fraud”.
Police are currently investigating claims of postal vote abuse around the country, but Constitutional Affairs Secretary Lord Falconer said the election had been safe.
He told a news conference this morning: “The government believes the general election last week was safe and secure and produced a fair result which was fair and accurate.”
Conservative Shadow Constitutional Affairs Secretary Oliver Heald said legislation to introduce individual voter registration would be necessary to restore confidence.
He warned: “Without individual registration, the Government’s plans will be tinkering at the margins – too little, too late, and will threaten more postal fraud in next year’s extensive set of local elections. It would be astonishing if the Government again ignored the advice of the independent Electoral Commission – a body which they created.”
Liberal Democrat chief executive Lord Rennard said new safeguards were “welcome but not sufficient”.
“Many problems with the postal voting system may still remain, including the fact that many people will have to vote before they are in full possession of the facts that emerge in the last week of the campaign,” he said.
“The problem of fraud will not necessarily be dealt with by tougher penalties because it may remain difficult to detect fraud occurring.”
Improving the postal voting process by allowing electors to apply for a postal vote at the same time as registering to vote, and requiring applications for a postal vote made on a separate application form rather than at registration to be checked against registration details will also be considered.
As will provision for secrecy warnings to be included on postal vote literature, watermarking or security-printing on ballot papers, and allowing administrators to correct clerical and administrative errors
Over three times as many people voted by post at the 2005 general election as in 2001.
