LYDIA REID wrote:
hi Lev

Might they be more interested if a person does not normally vote. If postal voting is used as a scam they would have to have this in before an election and it would surely show up somewhere if the person had already made a postal vote. Hopefully the computer would not print a number for them at a polling station.

Photo ID would be a good idea.

How would photo ID help sort out corruption in postal votes?

Hi Lydia,
If you take a postal vote then your name is marked off the register as not being able to vote in person at the polling station. Often, the amount of people voting by post is nowhere near as many people as those that applied for a postal vote. Maybe I am too cynical but I just think if you have gone to all the trouble of applying for a postal vote then how likely are you not to then use it to vote.

The problem with postal votes in Yorkshire came about because bent politicians got members of their community to apply for lots of postal votes. When they got the papers they filled them in on behalf of the gullible types who were too unused to the ways of the UK voting system to realise what was going on. Many votes were stolen from women who spoke no English and therefore knew not what was going on. IMO only those who can demonstrate proficiency in English should be granted a vote and unless somebody can demonstrate that they are a cripple or will be away from home on the date of the election they should not get a postal vote. How can a clerk at a polling station possibly know if a person who turns up to vote is who they claim to be without positive proof of identity? This is an obvious opportunity for fraud and it's one that could easly be addressed by requiring photo ID. That's no big deal because millions of folk fly every year and they have no problems producing the ID airlines and airport security demand. Why should we tolerate lesser security measures for one of the vitally important processes of democracy?

scunnert wrote:
LYDIA REID wrote:
hi Lev

Might they be more interested if a person does not normally vote. If postal voting is used as a scam they would have to have this in before an election and it would surely show up somewhere if the person had already made a postal vote. Hopefully the computer would not print a number for them at a polling station.

Photo ID would be a good idea.

How would photo ID help sort out corruption in postal votes?

Not in postal voting but in voting at a voting station surely it would not be so easy for someone else to use your vote. You are not asked for any ID or even your card that informs you where you should vote. If it changed to no card no, vote that might help. It would be a form of ID

Meg wrote:
Hi Lydia,
If you take a postal vote then your name is marked off the register as not being able to vote in person at the polling station. Often, the amount of people voting by post is nowhere near as many people as those that applied for a postal vote. Maybe I am too cynical but I just think if you have gone to all the trouble of applying for a postal vote then how likely are you not to then use it to vote.

That does seem a little strange are you thinking some of the votes are not processed.

Thanks for that info Meg

I had another thought if voting were compulsory with some form of ID it seems many of these problems would be sorted out. No question of whether this person does vote or has voted. If they decided that they did not want to vote for any party a tick in a box could register that.

More on this from today's NY Times

www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31obs...nion&oref=slogin

Given what's at stake its scary or have I just read one conspiracy theory too many?