Regarding ‘Southend exposes ease of electoral fraud’
October 26, 2012 3 Comments
So, Terry Davis has proved he can break the law; let’s hope that the CPS can prove they can prosecute. He has not proved that he could cast five votes.
Our democracy has safeguards, but it also relies to some extent upon the integrity and honesty of us all. I am not sure what Mr Davis’s law-breaking achieves, other than fifteen minutes of infamy for him.
The electoral registration system is not perfect, but neither is it like “a third world country” as Mr Davis claims.
I have knocked on thousands of doors, using the electoral registration system whilst doing so – my canvassing relies on the electoral roll. I have very solid experience of what registration is like, and where the weaknesses are.
I have seen mistakes; people registered twice and children included. I might add that, contrary to Mr Davis’s assertion about foreign-sounding names, that in every case these errors were made in the so-called indigenous population.
What I have found is significant numbers of unregistered people. Over-registration is not an issue in this corner of Essex, quite the contrary, and Government plans for Individual Voter Registration will only exacerbate this.
I do not know Mr Davis’s motives for his flagrant law-breaking, but I see scaremongering features. His decision to flout electoral law is not something I have witnessed in anyone else. Rather than questioning the integrity of the electoral registration system Mr Davis should take a long hard look in the mirror.
Having been out on many elections I can say the abuses are prolific.
the dead have votes, empty properties get residents, as do people who have moved away, faces reappear. Providing certains are answered correctly as opposed to truthfully polling staff can do nothing. And as for postal votes and proxies, especially postal proxies!
Are these really abuses? Of course the electoral roll gets out-of-date and therefore it may not have caught up with the fact that someone has died, but that is hardly abuse. It is a system that is based on honesty, and therefore (as Terry Davis has proved) can be abused by the dishonest. Yet, for all that I have found it remarkably robust.
To have a very robust system, that is one that is very cautious, will drive yet more people off the roll. As it is there are millions across the country currently who are not enfranchised. This, in my opinion, seriously undermines our democracy. The odd mistake does not.
Good points Julian. Rather like the annual ‘child receives polling card scandal’ that always features in some paper or the other. It never seems to be pointed out that the only reason that happened was that some muppet didn’t read any of the instructions on the form and put down the kids too!