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Post votes down after fraud probe Minister defends post vote system
(about 3 hours later)
More than 20,000 people have dropped off the register for postal votes in the wards in Birmingham at the centre of fraud allegations three years ago. A minister has insisted the new postal voting system being used in Thursday's elections are "as secure as possible".
In Aston and Bordesley Green - both the focus of the investigation - the number of postal voters is down by 80%. Constitutional affairs minister Bridget Prentice spoke after figures emerged suggesting postal fraud in 2004 might have been more widespread than thought.
A High Court judge said the widespread vote-rigging which took place in the city's 2004 council elections would have "shamed a banana republic". More than 20,000 postal voters have dropped off the register in Birmingham wards investigated over fraud.
Figures seen by the BBC suggest the problem was worse than first thought. Mrs Prentice rejected criticism, saying the aim was to make polls secure and "as fair and as open... as possible".
In four other wards, where there were allegations of fraud at the time but no formal enquiry, more than half the postal voters have disappeared from the list. One of my concerns, as well as fraud and making the vote as secure as possible, is also making sure that those people who are entitled to vote are actually on the register in order that they can vote Bridget PrenticeConstitutional Affairs minister
A High Court judge said, when he concluded there had been vote-rigging in Birmingham's 2004 council elections, it would have "shamed a banana republic".
In Aston and Bordesley Green wards - which were the focus of the investigation - the number of postal voters this year is down by 80%.
In four other wards, where there were allegations of fraud at the time but no formal inquiry, more than half the postal voters have disappeared from the list.
Elsewhere in the city, the figures have remained about the same.Elsewhere in the city, the figures have remained about the same.
The numbers began to fall when West Midlands Police and the city council carried out an audit to check that existing voters knew they were registered.The numbers began to fall when West Midlands Police and the city council carried out an audit to check that existing voters knew they were registered.
They have continued to drop since the introduction of new computer checks.They have continued to drop since the introduction of new computer checks.
Election commissioner Richard Mawrey QC upheld allegations of postal fraud relating to six seats won by Labour in the ballot of 10 June 2004. Opportunity to vote
Judge Mawrey said evidence of "massive, systematic and organised fraud" in the campaign had made a mockery of the election and ruled that not less than 1,500 votes had been cast fraudulently in the city. Mrs Prentice told the BBC she was confident that the new checks introduced this year - in which postal voters have to provide a signature and date of birth - were as "secure as possible".
One councillor was later cleared, on appeal, of corrupt practices, but five councillors had to stand down. She promised they would be reviewed after the elections "with the Electoral Commission" to see "if there's anything else that we need to do to make elections as fair, and as open, and as available to people as possible".
"One of my concerns, as well as fraud and making the vote as secure as possible, is also making sure that those people who are entitled to vote are actually on the register in order that they can vote," she added, on Radio 4's Today.
But election law expert Richard Price QC said individual registration - where any person going on to the Electoral Register must provide proof of identity as well as a signature - had "proved to be a complete success" in Northern Ireland and called for the government to "embrace" it.
That suggestion was rejected by Mrs Prentice, who said: "In Northern Ireland the register dropped very markedly after individual registration was brought in and it hasn't really gone back to the same figures again."
Polling pressures
Mr Price also raised concerns about electronic voting, which is being piloted in some areas and which he said "is open to serious abuse".
His concerns centred on the fact that pin numbers are posted to households, but "anybody can have access to them, people can collect them, go online and vote. There is no reliable method of checking".
But Mrs Prentice insisted that "because of all the checks and balances that are put into electronic voting that in some way it is an even more secure system than postal voting".
The issue of postal voting security has been the subject of political battles in recent years at a local and national level, over where the balance should be between designing out fraud while also making it easier for people to vote.
This year is the first time where people have to provide signatures on their postal votes, but ministers rejected calls for individual registration of voters rather than continuing the system where one person could apply for a postal ballot on behalf of a household.
There had been fears raised by some returning officers of possible problems with computer systems designed to verify the signatures on the postal ballots.
But the firm behind the system has said it is confident their systems will work.