Will postal ballot get your vote?

Rachel Pegg asked, if you apply to vote by post next month, can you be sure your voice will be heard?

In theory, postal voting sounds like a brilliant idea. No longer do you have to dig around for your polling card and make a special trip to an empty school or community building in order to play a part in the political process.

You can do your bit towards voting for your choice of Government from the comfort of your own home, providing you can find someone to take your form to the postbox afterwards.

It is perfect for older people, those who find it difficult to get around and people with busy lifestyles who are coping with long working hours and families.

Yet, in the run-up to next month's election, postal voting has acquired an infamous reputation.

The image of six Birmingham councillors going from house to house to collect blank ballot papers, then filling them in with their own choice of candidate has been sticking in many people's minds.

Although the six men have only just been convicted, this fraud took place in 2002 and affected a local election rather than a national one.

But, whether rightly or not, the public has begun to doubt the security of casting their votes in the mail.

One Sussex council has reported that, for the first time this year, people are calling every day to cancel postal votes they had requested.

Rother District Council is receiving almost 30 cancellations a week.

Council spokesman Malcolm Constable said even though he did not believe there had been any of this kind of fraud in the Sussex area, some people were losing faith in the system because of what they had heard about Birmingham.

He said: "We are getting three or four a day being cancelled."

Like every district and borough council in Sussex, Rother has seen a big rise in the overall number of people signing up for a postal vote because it is so convenient.

By the beginning of this week 7,200 people had registered, compared to about 3,000 at the last General Election in 2001.

In Brighton and Hove yesterday, there had been about 22,000 registrations. Four years ago there were 7,000. Thousands more are expected to pile in before the closing date of Tuesday, April 26, from people who are already on the electoral register but can't make it to a poll booth on the day.

Politicians like postal voting because it increases turnout as electors are more likely to vote if they can do it from home.

In 2003 Brighton and Hove was picked for a pilot scheme where all votes in the city council election were cast by post rather than in person.

Turnout increased from 38 per cent in 1999 to 46 per cent.

In some places it can be hard for many people to vote at an official place.

A spokeswoman for Crawley Borough Council, which has seen an almost sixfold increase in registrations from 1,637 in 2001 to more than 9,800, said: "As a council we ran a big campaign a couple of years ago to get people to vote by post because we felt we needed to increase voter participation. In some areas of Crawley we have low turnout because of the way people work. Crawley is a 24-hour town people work at the airport and at night."

Voter Carol Denby, 52, from Worthing, usually has a postal vote because she finds it hard to reach a polling station.

She was worried about the future of the system.

She said: "They have got to get the postal votes sorted out. It is a bit concerning that there might be fraud. You hear about it in other countries but you don't expect it here.

"Some of the old folk rely on it, otherwise they are not able to vote."

Chris Fossey, head of life events and deputy acting returning officer at Brighton and Hove City Council, said he believed the system in the city was already secure enough.

He said: "We have never had a problem. We are pretty confident. I know there is this fear around the country due to the Birmingham case. It is something we have no particular problems with."

Mr Fossey said landlords of properties with multiple occupancy were contacted to arrange a single point to drop off the forms, while random spot checks were carried out to make sure signatures matched those the council held on file.

There were other measures to prevent fraud which he could not disclose because it would compromise security.

He said: "We have always had people in nursing homes registered to vote. People see it as convenient. I cast my vote by post.

"Royal Mail did a really good job."

There are 192,000 people in Brighton and Hove on the electoral register. Four thousand of them can only vote in local elections because they are EU rather than UK citizens.

Paul Elgood, leader of the city council's Liberal Democrat Group, said his party was concerned.

He said: "Because of the level of complaints in other parts of the country, we do have deep reservations that the system is open to corruption.

"Having said that, postal voting in the last local election in the city was very well run.

"I think all parties and local democracy benefits from greater turnout. It does increase the level of debate in local elections.

"But it is hard to see how you can stop abuse of the postal system."

Garry Peltzer-Dunn, the council's Conservative leader, said: "There is no doubt a case has been proved against postal voting, not the principle but the way in which it is permitted at the moment.

"There should be more stringent safeguards."

Coun Peltzer-Dunn said when he was campaigning in 2003 he came across a household where two votes had been delivered for people who had moved away.

The councillor took them personally to the council's electoral officer to be destroyed.

He said: "If anybodyunscrupulous came across them they could very easily take them. There is definitely a chance for abuse.

"I would never trust postal voting."

Ken Bodfish, Labour leader of the council, said: "Postal voting is a proven method of increasing turnover.

"That is a good thing for democracy.

"The bad thing is where there is fraud. There is no evidence there was any fraud in Brighton and Hove when we had all postal voting.

"For many people postal voting is the only way they can take part in democracy."

Thursday, April 14