Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Making postal voting safer
Councils across Suffolk are taking steps to make postal voting safer after a new act was introduced to reduce the chances of election fraud.
From January, anyone applying to vote by post will have to provide their date of birth as well as their signature. Anyone returning a vote will be asked to fill in a statement which gives these details again. The two documents will then be compared to make sure the details match, reducing any chance of fraud.
To be able to make the same security checks for existing postal voters, Electoral Services officers across Suffolk are currently asking everyone who is registered to vote by post to provide their date of birth and signature. If you receive a letter, please respond quickly so that a reminder does not have to be sent and costs can be kept down. If you do not respond within 42 days, the Electoral Registration officer will have to cancel your postal vote and instead send you details of your usual polling station.
These changes have been introduced by the Electoral Administration Act 2006 to improve the security of postal voting. Although instances of postal vote fraud in the county are extremely rare, these extra measures will help make the process even safer.
If you have any queries about the new measures, please contact your council’s electoral services office directly on:01284 757131
