Will The Postal Ballot Result In Electoral Fraud?

[wellyman]

And was there any evidence whatsoever of fradulent postal voting - I assume all parties scrutinise postal votes very closely for evidence of fraud.

 

At the last election observers described certain aspects of the postal ballot as being worthy of a banana republic.

[Longcol]

At the last election observers described certain aspects of the postal ballot as being worthy of a banana republic.

 

The OP said "an observer". Are we playing Chinese whispers now.........

 

Any evidence yet of any fraud in postal voting in Sheffield local elections?

[Vasquez Rich]

Everyone, and I mean everyone, should be charged £100, either through their tax, benefits, pension etc etc.. they then get it back when they vote, otherwise they forfeit.

 

Postal voting is a scam and will result in rigging, as will electronic voting.

[Speckled Hen]

The OP said "an observer". Are we playing Chinese whispers now.........

 

Any evidence yet of any fraud in postal voting in Sheffield local elections?

 

GUARDIAN APRIL 2005

 

A high court judge ruled today that there had been "widespread fraud" surrounding the election of six Labour party councillors in Birmingham in last year's local elections.

 

Richard Mawrey QC, sitting as an election commissioner, said he was satisfied vote-rigging had occurred in the run up to the June ballot.

 

Launching a scathing attack on the current postal voting regulations, the judge said: "The system is wide open to fraud and any would-be political fraudster knows that it's wide open to fraud."

 

Responding to an earlier refusal from the government to overhaul the postal voting rules he said: "Anybody who has sat through the case I have just tried and listened to evidence of electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic would find this statement surprising."

 

Currently, a coalition of the Conservatives (39 seats) and Lib Dems (28) run the council, and the Labour opposition has 53 seats.

 

Mr Mawrey finished hearing the second of two petitions raised against the councillors last month. The first petition was brought against the Bordesley Green ward representatives - Shafaq Ahmed, Shah Jahan and Ayaz Khan - by the People's Justice Party. The three men walked out of the hearing on the first day after Mr Mawrey refused an application for an adjournment to allow them further time to prepare their case.

 

The second petition was raised against three Aston representatives - Mohammed Islam, Muhammed Afzal and Mohammed Kazi - by local Liberal Democrat supporters.

 

All six councillors strenuously denied rigging the ballots and being improperly elected. During the trials, which were held at the Birmingham and Midland Institute and lasted four weeks, the court heard evidence of wholesale theft of votes in the city, with thousands of postal ballots being diverted to a "safe house" where they were filled in on an "industrial scale".

 

Petitioners accused the defendants of using forgery and deception to collect and amend thousands of votes. The petitioners also accused the city's returning officer and chief executive, Lin Homer, of failing to discharge her duties in accordance with electoral law.

 

In a statement, the Labour party said all six councillors had been suspended from the party. It confirmed that Mike Griffiths, who heads up the party's national organisation committee, had been appointed to oversee activities.

 

Mr Griffiths said a "vigorous disciplinary process" would take place, with the six councillors involved suspended with immediate effect.

 

"The Labour Party expects the highest standards of integrity and honesty of its councillors and campaign workers. These standards have not been met in Aston and Bordesley Green Wards in Birmingham," he said.

 

The hearings were viewed as test cases because of complaints about postal voting irregularities in other parts of the country. The ruling comes as record numbers of electors are applying for postal votes ahead of the general election.

 

A Guardian survey published last week showed that applications to vote by post have already tripled in some areas, particularly in inner cities such as Birmingham.

 

The survey of 55 councils, covering 135 constituencies, showed that more than 53,000 prospective Birmingham voters have requested to vote by post, compared with only 16,000 at the last election.

 

The government has claimed that there are very few prosecutions for electoral fraud, but the Guardian has established there are criminal inquiries under way in Reading, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, greater Manchester and west Yorkshire into allegations of theft of ballot papers, forged votes and personation - which involves filling in ballot papers in absence of the voter.

 

The Electoral Commission last week published a code of conduct on handling requests for postal ballots ahead of next month's local and expected general election.

 

It urged candidates and canvassers to avoid handling or helping voters complete their postal ballot papers. The commission also encouraged voters to post or deliver ballot papers themselves after completing them in secret before sealing them personally.

 

A spokesperson for the Electoral Reform Society said: "We do not believe that electoral fraud is confined to Birmingham, to the Labour party or, most importantly, to particular communities. This is a problem that we believe may be widespread in this country.

 

"We have seen cases recently in Blackburn, Guildford and Hackney involving people from very different backgrounds and each of the major parties. We dispute the view put about that there is little fraud because few people are being charged."

 

A department for constitutional affairs spokesman said: "The government condemns all instances of electoral fraud and attaches the highest importance to the upholding of standards in elections."

 

He added: "The government will consider carefully the full judgment of the electoral commissioner once it is available, and consider any necessary action."

 

New steps are being taken to ensure that the voting system continues to be "robust, safe and secure", he said.

[D Bater]

ok back to my question,

how does the postal votes work in all of this?

 

Apart from the obvious they get sent out, ticked and returned.

[anarchist]

Another quote...Guardian on run up to General Election

 

 

Police forces throughout Britain will be warned to be on the alert for widespread electoral fraud in the run-up to the general election.

With several cases of alleged vote-rigging and fraud under investigation and fears that many more are going undetected, the Electoral Commission is pressing senior police officers to take the issue seriously.

 

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) is writing guidelines, with the help of the commission, to send to every force and returning officer in the country amid concerns that many local forces do not have the expertise to detect organised vote-rigging.

 

Kate Sullivan, head of electoral administration at the commission, said: "If you go into a police station and say 'Someone has stolen my car', they know what to do. If you say 'Someone has stolen my vote' they don't know what to do."

 

The commission is calling for a database of vote-rigging cases to be set up on the police national computer to give a clearer picture of the scale of the problem.

 

The national guidelines for police forces are being drawn up from a protocol written by Greater Manchester police, who have built up expertise in investigating electoral fraud.

 

Stephen Thomas, assistant chief constable, said: "It is the security of postal votes particularly which needs to be protected. So if you get 20 people applying for postal votes at a three-bedroom terrace house you realise that something is going on."

 

Mr Thomas said proving electoral fraud was notoriously difficult. He warned that during the general election, expected in May, several different types of postal ballot forms would be available, something which could create confusion and further undermine their security.

 

The government says there are very few prosecutions for electoral fraud, but the Guardian has established that criminal inquiries are under way in Reading, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire into allegations of theft of ballot papers, forged votes and personation, which involves filling in ballots in the absence of the voter.

 

Many inquiries involve allegations of organised vote-rigging on a huge scale during last June's local elections in ar eas where the government piloted all-postal ballots. Other cases involve traditional ballot box elections.

 

In Birmingham two trials which begin next month will challenge the integrity of the postal voting system - something which Labour has been keen to expand in the belief that it increases turnout. Critics argue that the increase in postal voting is undermining confidence in the electoral system because it makes fraud easier. The electoral commissioner sitting at Birmingham high court will hear evidence of organised electoral fraud in the Aston and Bordesley Green wards.

 

Across the city, postal voting soared from 24,000 in 2002 to 70,000. But the petitioners, who are calling for the results to be overturned, say they have evidence of mass applications for postal votes, intimidation of householders to vote one way, and ballot theft.

 

In the Aston ward - where Labour beat the Liberal Democrats - a handwriting expert is expected to give evidence that hundreds of postal ballots were filled in by one person. In Bordesley Green allegations include claims that attempts were made to bribe a postman to hand over postal ballot forms.

 

Lord Rennard, chief execu tive of the Liberal Democrats, said: "The growth of postal voting is undermining confidence in the voting system."

 

Elsewhere, papers have been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service on the case of Patrick Tyrrell, a Labour councillor in Halton, Cheshire, and his daughter, arrested last year on suspicion of electoral fraud.

 

In Lancashire a trial begins next month relating to the 2002 local elections involving allegations that postal votes were forged. Police are also investigating the surge of postal proxy votes in Burnley in last June's local and Euro elections. Greater Manchester police have sent a file to the CPS after arresting three men in Oldham on suspicion of theft of ballot papers and conspiracy to defraud.

[anarchist]

ok back to my question,

how does the postal votes work in all of this?

 

Apart from the obvious they get sent out, ticked and returned.

 

The big problem re postal votes is no one knows who is doing the voting.

 

You get households where someone simply takes everones ballot paper and fills them in.

You get cases where pressure and intimidation is used to collect ballot papers from whole communities and fill them in against the wishes of the registered voter.

 

There are cases where postal votes are applied for for people who simply don't exist or people who live in foreign lands.

 

This is just a selection of the practices. I am sure there are far more than that.

[lizmachin]

The OP said "an observer". Are we playing Chinese whispers now.........

 

Any evidence yet of any fraud in postal voting in Sheffield local elections?

 

Have you any evidence there isn't?

 

I am told by a councillor that there are concerns over the number of postal vote applications in Central. We will see.

[Heyesey]

The OP said "an observer". Are we playing Chinese whispers now.........

 

Any evidence yet of any fraud in postal voting in Sheffield local elections?

 

There is, as yet, no evidence that postal-voting fraud has taken place in Sheffield.

 

There is overwhelming evidence that it has taken place in many councils. That alone is good enough reason to be concerned, whether or not Sheffield happens to have been one of them. If the process used in Sheffield has been open to fraud elsewhere, then it's open to fraud here as well.

[lizmachin]

Richard Mawrey QC, sitting as an election commissioner, said he was satisfied vote-rigging had occurred in the run up to the June ballot.

 

Launching a scathing attack on the current postal voting regulations, the judge said: "The system is wide open to fraud and any would-be political fraudster knows that it's wide open to fraud."

 

Responding to an earlier refusal from the government to overhaul the postal voting rules he said: "Anybody who has sat through the case I have just tried and listened to evidence of electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic would find this statement surprising."

.

 

It is the same system here as it was then. Just because electoral fraud was not detected in Sheffield it does not mean it did not occur.

 

If you don't look, you don't find.