Sham Scottish referendum results. Postal vote rigging and 10 red herring counts of electoral fraud alleged in Glasgow
Allegations of electoral fraud at polling stations in Glasgow deflect a huge shadow over the Scottish referendum result today.
By Chris Green: Police launched an investigation after the city’s council
alerted them to 10 suspected cases of voters impersonating other people,
allowing them to complete two ballot papers. Under British law, voters
are not required to present identification when they take part in an
election.
Stewart Hosie, SNP Treasury spokesman at Westminster, said
it was “very sad that people feel the need to engage in any kind of
impersonation”, adding: “I think that’s a daft thing to do. The ballot
papers have been identified, they will be taken away and fingerprinted,
the police will do their job and I’m sure whoever has done it will be
caught and sentenced.
“That’s the correct procedure. It won’t change the result but of course it shouldn’t have happened, it is a silly, silly, thing for anyone to try to do.”
Colin Edgar, a spokesman for Glasgow City Council’s chief executive, explained how the alleged fraud was uncovered. “Somebody turned up to vote, they gave their name, the presiding officer went to cross off their name on the list of voters to give them a ballot paper and found the name had already been crossed off and a ballot paper had already been issued to someone who apparently had the same name,” he said.
The scale of the fraud 'appears' to be very small, as the number of people registered to vote in Glasgow is 486,219 but points to possibly massive perversions.
Edited by WD
The postal vote is the major area of concern in Scotland that has been avoided by the lame stream media with concerns raised in 2010.
“That’s the correct procedure. It won’t change the result but of course it shouldn’t have happened, it is a silly, silly, thing for anyone to try to do.”
Colin Edgar, a spokesman for Glasgow City Council’s chief executive, explained how the alleged fraud was uncovered. “Somebody turned up to vote, they gave their name, the presiding officer went to cross off their name on the list of voters to give them a ballot paper and found the name had already been crossed off and a ballot paper had already been issued to someone who apparently had the same name,” he said.
The scale of the fraud 'appears' to be very small, as the number of people registered to vote in Glasgow is 486,219 but points to possibly massive perversions.
Edited by WD
The postal vote is the major area of concern in Scotland that has been avoided by the lame stream media with concerns raised in 2010.
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Electoral Commission highlights postal vote fraud concerns
NewsNetScotland: An Electoral Commission report into the Glasgow North East by-election won by Labour has
highlighted weaknesses in the current system and suggested that there
was increased potential for electoral fraud involving postal votes.
The commission also criticised one party (thought to be Labour) over their submittance of postal votes. The
commission found that of the 1780 postal votes that were handed in with
just three days to go to the deadline almost half were handed in by the
Labour party.
This
contravened agreements drawn up in 2005 governing the holding of postal
votes which state that a party should hold postal ballots no longer
than two days a spot check carried out on the Labour postal votes revealed that many had been dated weeks earlier.
The
commission also criticised the length of time the constituency had been
left without political representation, with Labour’s delay in calling
the by-election leaving the constituency without an MP for 4½ months.
The
by-election, eventually won by Labour’s Willie Bain, was held on 12
November 2009 after the sitting Labour MP Michael Martin resigned on 22nd June following his role in the MP’s expenses scandal. The
decision by Labour to delay the by-election by 4½ months brought
stinging criticism from opposition parties including the SNP.
The
Electoral Commission have added their own criticism and suggested that
legislation be brought in to ensure that an electorate are never again
denied representation for such an extended period and that an election
be called within three months of a vacancy.
The
commission also highlighted the number of people on the electoral
register who were known not to be resident at the address given, saying:
“While
4,028 electors were added to the register, we believe that the current
system allowed almost 1,900 electors to remain on the register even
though a registration form had been returned which showed that those
electors were no longer resident at an address in the constituency.”
Current
legislation did not allow for the timely removal of such people and
this said the commission meant that there was an increased potential for
electoral fraud involving postal votes.
So
concerned were the commission that they recommended that “The UK
Government should consider appropriate legislative changes within the
current framework and as part of the development of individual electoral
registration.”
They also recommended that current legislation covering postal votes be changed. The
law currently requires that Returning Officers check at least 20% of
returned postal voting statements; the commission strongly advised that
100% personal identifier verification is needed to protect against voter
fraud.
The
report also confirmed that one allegation of personation (someone
trying to vote using someone else’s name) is currently being
investigated by Strathclyde Police.
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