This year's elections for Brighton and Hove City Council will not be conducted through the ballot box.

In a bid to increase turnout, the council has successfully applied for permission to hold an all-postal ballot.

There's a precedent for this. The ballot to decide whether or not there should be a directly-elected mayor was also all postal.

Although the result did not go the way many leading councillors wished, it did have a higher turnout than expected.

There's every reason to suppose the postal ballot in May will again make more people bother to vote.

A close eye needs to be kept on the ballot to make sure there is no opportunity for fraud.

But, if the turnout is up, it's likely future ballots will be postal, perhaps in general as well as local elections.