We have noted the findings and comments in the judgment of the election court. Since 2005, the Government have introduced a range of new measures to strengthen the integrity of our electoral system, and there have been very few proven incidences of fraud since the new measures were brought into force. They include:
Clear new powers for electoral administrators to cross-check applications to register to vote against other information the council holds.
New requirement for electors to provide personal identifiers (signature and date of birth) if they wish to have a postal vote. The identifiers must be replicated by electors when they subsequently cast their postal vote, and will be cross-checked with the original samples to ensure the postal vote is valid.
Administrators get more time to check postal vote applications because people have to apply for a postal vote a minimum of 11 working days before the close of poll (the previous minimum was six days).
Postal vote applicants have to specify a reason if they want their postal vote to be sent to an address other than that at which they are registered.
Electoral administrators write to everyone who has applied for a postal vote at their registered address acknowledging receipt of their application and confirming the outcome—this will alert people to any applications for postal votes made falsely on their behalf.
The Government are working to improve the electoral register, and agree in principle with individual registration. However, the ground needs to be prepared; unlike Northern Ireland, where there had been a perception of over-registration, in Great Britain there is an issue of under-registration, with in the region of 3.5 million eligible electors not on the electoral register. A rapid and unplanned move to individual registration would exacerbate that situation.
We will take account of the election court's judgment in any further development on electoral registration and postal voting processes and legislation.
Overall, the incidence of postal voting fraud remains relatively low. It is also apparent that the cases that have arisen relate to only a small number of authorities across the country.
However, the Government take the risk of electoral fraud extremely seriously. We have put in place a range of measures to safeguard the security of postal voting. These include the introduction of a system of personal identifiers for postal voters to ensure that postal votes counted at an election are valid. We are also continuing to work closely with the Electoral Commission, police, political parties and returning officers to raise awareness and strengthen systems to ensure that fraud is detected and prosecuted.