We are getting to the time when the postal ballots are mixed in unidentifiably with other ballots before counting. This is on the instruction of the electoral commission. This destroys all evidence of fraud – if you get batches of hundreds of postal ballots all for the same candidate, or if the balance of postal votes is vastly different from the balance of secret ballots, there is no way of observing it.
I have tried again and again to discover any rationale for this mixing in, other than the facilitation of fraud. I asked the Electoral Commission when I was a candidate, and was told it was an additional precaution against individual votes being identified. That is complete nonsense – there is no way that counting the postal ballots separately would enable you to identify individuals.
Undoubtedly some readers of this blog will be observers at various counts. Ask the returning officer or their staff at what stage the postal ballots are mixed in unidentifiably, how, and why. I should be most interested to see reports of the responses. If we see a substantial difference between Labour’s performance in Scotland and the opinion polls, this is how it will be achieved.
Add Greens 2 Plaid Cymru 4
Calm down, everyone, you’re acting like a lot of excited schoolgirls who’ve jys spotted a flasher.
Iain,
You said this:-
” In any event, as Craig says, this is an area where there MUST be changes so that warning signs of fraud are identified as early as possible”
But – what if the “warning signs” are already in the process of postal voting ( i.e. the corruption is endemic in the system itself – just like the ‘rotten boroughs in the 1800s) – and we still don’t understand that corruption exists daily and incessantly.
CB
Iain,
You said that there MUST be changes so that warning signs of fraud are identified as early as possible.
But – what if the “warning signs” are already in the process of postal voting ( i.e. the corruption is endemic in the system itself – just like the ‘rotten boroughs in the 1800s) – and we still don’t understand that corruption exists daily and incessantly.
CB
@Craig: “A key weakness in the system is that Returning Officers are usually the Chief Executives of the local authority. In Labour rotten boroughs, loyalty to the Labour Party is the key unspoken pre-qualification in their appointment.”
That’s quite a serious, broad-sweeping allegation, Craig. Do you actually have any evidence to back this up, though?
It will be very interesting after tomorrow, once new SNP ministers are installed, to discover what Westminster’s timetable shall be for the package of further devolved powers, so recently promised by the three horsemen of the apocalypse. I expect all manner of stalling and harrumphing, which Scottish voters will not take kindly to — including those who voting against independence.
‘If we see a substantial difference between Labour’s performance in Scotland and the opinion polls, this is how it will be achieved.’
It’s not the opinion polls that are important. It’s the exit polls which are very good indicators of how people voted. That’s why they were left out of the referendum.
It’s not ‘little’ corruption that matters so much. It’s the ability of the intelligence services to swap bags of postal votes with ones to their liking. I would think this has happened in South Thanet to make sure Nigel Farage doesn’t appear in Parliament and conversely in Sheffield Hallam to make sure Nick Clegg does.
Why not just publish each ballot number and corresponding vote cast after the election?
Point 17 of GH Graham’s list is the weak point where with ease the security services could rig the vote.
17. All valid ballot papers are placed into ballot boxes and stored securely before being delivered to the count venue after the close of poll
https://twitter.com/charlesfrith/status/596737259371528192
fascinating must read > How Big Money and Big Brother won the British Elections https://medium.com/@NafeezAhmed/how-big-money-and-big-brother-won-the-british-elections-2e8da57faac4