Peers continue to block postal vote plans
MPs have thrown out another attempt by peers to limit a proposed trial of postal voting during this year’s local council and European Parliamentary elections.
The row over plans to hold all-postal ballots in the North East, East Midlands, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber has now reached deadlock, as ministers and peers refuse to back down.
MPs threw out a Lords amendment which would halve the number of regional constituencies involved in the June 10th pilot from four to two for the second time in ten days.
The House of Lords opposes the decision to extend the experiment to the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber. Peers returned the European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill to the House of Commons for a second time.
However, hours later, MPs rejected the amendment by 274 votes to 152, a government majority of 122.
Ministers attempted to allay concerns about fraud by suggesting a process that would require voters to have their declarations of identity signed by a witness.
Opponents of the plans argue that the Electoral Commission, the body set up by the government to oversee voting issues, only “unequivocally” recommended the North East and East Midlands for the trial.
Liberal Democrat spokesman David Heath questioned the logic of having the whole of northern England voting only by post and the South using a different system.
The Bill could now return to the Lords as early as Thursday.
Small-scale postal vote trials have already been held in some areas of the UK.
