Postal Votes?

StevieJ

I must say I was disturbed to see the level of postal votes in this referendum, something like 25% of the actual voting population. That would be around 9-10 million. I thought postal voting was a fringe activity. It doesn't take much to imagine how this could be corrupted i.e. parties aranging and filling in the vote for old people. Please tell me there are some proper safeguards and controls on this. This was not confined to this referendum the postal votes were also very high for the Scottish referendum and the GE.

antrobus

StevieJ wrote: »

I must say I was disturbed to see the level of postal votes in this referendum, something like 25% of the actual voting population. That would be around 9-10 million. I thought postal voting was a fringe activity. It doesn't take much to imagine how this could be corrupted i.e. parties aranging and filling in the vote for old people....

You don't need to imagine anything. It has already happened.

StevieJ wrote: »

... Please tell me there are some proper safeguards and controls on this. This was not confined to this referendum the postal votes were also very high for the Scottish referendum and the GE.

Sadly, postal voting fraud is actually quite easy.

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

I must say I was disturbed to see the level of postal votes in this referendum, something like 25% of the actual voting population. That would be around 9-10 million. I thought postal voting was a fringe activity. It doesn't take much to imagine how this could be corrupted i.e. parties aranging and filling in the vote for old people. Please tell me there are some proper safeguards and controls on this. This was not confined to this referendum the postal votes were also very high for the Scottish referendum and the GE.

I can't see that this vote was crooked.

Remain might have won if it was sunny but we'll never know. I can think of no reason to suspect that it was anything other than straight. Ms Cox wasn't murdered to try to sway the vote and there was no need to take a pen with you to vote yesterday.

Remain lost and it's important to move on from there. My feeling is that a super majority should be required for a constitutional change but it's too late for that.

antrobus

Generali wrote: »

I can't see that this vote was crooked.
....

Well yes, it's one thing to fiddle a few local council election results; you probably only need a few hundred dodgy postal votes to fix the result. But in a nationwide referendum you're need a few million dodgy postal votes in order to fix the result.

the_flying_pig

yeah, I dunno.


I certainly wondered what proportion of alzheimers patients [there are the thick end of a million of these in the UK] 'voted', and how many of these by postal votes that were in practice completed by spouses or babyboomer offspring. I rather suspect that an exceptionally high proportion of all patients who are fully or partly cared for by a relative did indeed cast a vote.


Anecdotally I know one [yes, 1] such 'voter' in her late 80s who retained strong enough views on the single market issue to vote 'leave' despite her having long since lost the ability to recognize any of her family including her husband of 60-odd years. as I understand it her beliefs have recently straddled two or three of the relatively conservative 21st century heterodox schools of economic thought.

System

Generali wrote: »

I can't see that this vote was crooked.

Remain might have won if it was sunny but we'll never know.

.

It was sunny all day here and they lost 54/46.
So we do know

michaels

Generali wrote: »

Remain lost and it's important to move on from there. My feeling is that a super majority should be required for a constitutional change but it's too late for that.

Problem with that though is that a decison not to vote becomes a vote for the status quo so we could have 100% of votes cast for an option but if only 49.9% of the electorate voted it would be classed as not carried.

Perhaps we need a better constitution altogether? What do other countries do with regard to referenda validity? I seem to remember the dutch require 30% of elegible voters?

[Deleted User]

We were out of the country for the 2010 election so for the first time had postal votes and have ever since, for the PCC vote in May I received a letter a month later to tell me my vote hadn't been counted as I hadn't fully completed my D.O.B.,I have 100% faith in them.