Postal voting

[jonjel]

I read with some incredulity that the percentage of postal ballots in the recent Peterborough election was over 60%. If that is true then something seriously needs to be done about the way the system is, because regardless of your political leanings that system is wide open to abuse.

MP's unless they are paired have to attend to vote and there have been instances in the past where they have been carried in to the house on stretchers. I am in favour of those unable to get to a polling station having a postal vote, but simply don't accept that 60% of the 48% of people who voted could not get to a polling station.

[alancalverd]

The only cases of abuse I know are where political parties have offered to distribute the postal ballot forms. It should be easy enough to serial number the forms with a barcode and discard any photocopies.

Nor is it a question of not getting to the polling station. I could, but it's an unnecessary aggravation and I may be called out on polling day, so I always use the postal system. Given that older people are more likely to vote, it doesn't surprise me that 50% of those actually voting would prefer a postal form. 60% is something of an eye-opener but if every form can be matched to a request that checks against the electoral roll, it should be possible to verify their legitimacy. Oddly, I didn't object to the Poll Tax for this very reason: no pay, no record, no vote.

[Progenitor A]

Jun 7, 2019 12:55:16 GMT 1 jonjel said:

I read with some incredulity that the percentage of postal ballots in the recent Peterborough election was over 60%. If that is true then something seriously needs to be done about the way the system is, because regardless of your political leanings that system is wide open to abuse.

MP's unless they are paired have to attend to vote and there have been instances in the past where they have been carried in to the house on stretchers. I am in favour of those unable to get to a polling station having a postal vote, but simply don't accept that 60% of the 48% of people who voted could not get to a polling station.

Is that correct Jonjel? I have read that of the allocated postal voting forms, 69% were actually used giving a 69% postal vote turnout in comparison to a 48% non-postal turnout. I can find no figures for the % of postal votes of the total votes cast
Postal voting is abused, especially by some ethnic minority groups. Labour was fully aware of the electoral corruption of some ethnic groupings when they introduced postal voting, but they went ahead anyway, some cynics saying that they did so because they knew the corruption would be in their favour
I have seen a report that one person convicted and gaoled for electoral corruption in 2004 was seen campaigning for Labour this time on the streets of Peterborough, but have been unable to find corroborating evidence

[jonjel]

I have seen very conflicting figures, but one that seems to have been repeated quite often is that there were something like 6000 postal votes in Peterborough. I don't know what percentage that is of the total votes cast, but seems a very high number of people who for one reason or another could not get to a polling station.

And I totally agree, some form of bar-coding or some other fool proof method which can not identify the voter as it is a secret ballot needs to be sorted out urgently.

[alancalverd]

The barcode need not identify the voter. All that is required is that every issued postal ballot paper carries a random barcode. On opening, if the barcode hasn't been issued, or has already been counted, the form is invalidated. You could go a step further: have a master list that allows the authorities to trace the issue of each code, but at the end of counting, that list is erased apart from the duplicates. And now we know whodunnit, but no human has read the names of the legitimate voters.

[Progenitor A]

That will not eliminate sub-continental style electoral corruption, where empty forms are collected by the head of the community and filled in by the same; where multiple applications are made from one address for people that do not exist. This corruption only works with postal voting

[alancalverd]

Hence the logic of the poll tax. If you want multiple forms delivered to an address, you will have to produce a poll tax receipt for that number of adult residents. At an average of £500 per person-year, that's a very expensive way to buy votes even if it represents good value for education and sewage. At present, forms are only issued on the basis of the electoral register but it costs nothing to add a few names to that list.