Quote:
Originally Posted by Livia
You are right, Jaxie. I'm a qualified and experienced election agent and I've worked with the Electoral Commission and my local electoral services on many elections, European, Parliamentary, County, District and Town. When people apply for a postal vote they have to provide a copy of their signature, as you know. If they cannot and someone signs on their behalf, a reason has to be given and this is usually followed up. People's signatures are checked against the postal vote request and can also be checked against other documentation held by the council. Also, people's requests are often checked against what's called the Marked Register. This is a copy of the electoral roll which is marked as to which voter cast a vote in the last election (obviously it only says whether they voted, not who they voted for). You can see whether this person has voted in the past. If they haven't, then enquiries are made.
There is no fool proof system because fools are so ingenious. But we have in this country one of the best, one of the fairest systems in the world. Of course there are people who think everything's a conspiracy... However, staff in council's electoral services department are really thorough and committed as is the Electoral Commission. I agree with you about the future of postal votes.
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Thanks for clarifying all that Livia. I have a family member who works in a job where they are often out of the country and have used postal voting and I was quite impressed with how it's done with the envelope in an envelope and signature etc as they showed me, though not their vote of course!