Anyone falsely applying for a postal vote ahead of May's local elections could face up to two years in jail as part of the Government's attempt to increase trust in British democracy.

Election ministers have unveiled tough new measures aimed at clamping down on postal and proxy vote fraud - as well as boosting the security of votes once cast.

In 2004 the electoral commissioner Sir Richard Mawrey said postal voting was "wide open to fraud" following a vote scandal in Birmingham, hitting out at the Government over the level of postal ballot abuse - abuse that would disgrace a "banana republic", he said.

Link

Newcastle Journal

# posted by Curly : 1:25 pm