UKH

While I don't want to propagate any tin foil hat conspiracy theories, I do have concerns that the postal votes surged so much in so many marginal seats and that prior knowledge of the postal vote outcome was known by the BBC political correspondent and by a tory mp. 

What do you think? 

The article linked certainly raises a few questions in my mind. 

https://rickycoxon.wordpress.com/2020/01/13/why-did-labour-lose/

I think i said at the time that Laura should have been prosecuted for interfering with the electoral process.

How many people remember that on the day of the Referendum the BBC news bulletins included stories about pretty nasty crimes committed by EU immigrants./Asylum seekers?

In our house jaws dropped.

And we still haven't had the Russia Report.  but the NHS is down by tens of thousands as a result of the Brexiteers hostility

I have certain reservations regarding postal votes;

In some households, that is in households where one person - usually the father - has overbearing control over the rest, there is nothing to stop that person controlling ALL the votes within that household, not just their own.

This is, in all likelihood, going to be far more prevalent within households  of Asian descent, and where the grasp of English is not 100%. The same households where "arranged" (or should that be forced) marriages still exist. Unfortunately these households tend to flock together, providing an effective "block vote".

When someone does NOT have an occupation that involves frequent foreign travel, there really is no reason to have a postal vote. After all, within the election booth, no-one can force you to vote the way THEY want, rather than the way YOU want.

One aspect of this I find interesting is the seeming push from the Conservatives for Voter ID at polling stations when the incidence of fraud is virtually zero, whereas there has repeatedly been issues with widespread fraud in the postal vote system.

There are also questions to be answered about how the operating licences for postal votes have been awarded to companies connected with various conservative MPs and peers. - Surely there needs to be much more clarity and scrutiny of what these companies are doing to ensure the ballot is not tainted

I got one due to foreign travel and have kept it because of its convenience.  I would rather we moved to a system of NOT having to attend in person.

I blame 5g .  

Labour lost because they'd gone way too far left for most "ordinary" British people, and because a significant number of people want Brexit (like it or not).

I'd consider that completely obvious, and totally the fault of the party for not fielding a centre-left candidate instead.  Blair, for instance (phoney wars aside) would have had a very good chance.

I voted for them, but I recognise my politics are a bit left of the current British average as a whole.

Yes, I was just thinking that the Tories are very good at brain washing the plebeiate.

Nah.

Postal voting is becoming more popular. Once you've done it once you won't go back.

Regarding people knowing the results in advance. Someone I know was accused of this in the 2014 independence referendum when he stated that Remain had won the postal votes. In fact he'd seen the postal votes separated into two piles and saw the Remain pile was higher than the Leave pile. 

Didn't stop the conspiracy theories from those in denial of course.

The votes are opened in advance and can be observed by relevant interested parties, eg party members. So people could get an idea of what was going on although they are trusted not to actively do so and certainly not to share it.

 So pretty appalling behaviour and should be held to account.

Not me. The polling station is right by the pub back door whereas the post box is fully 400 metres away.

There have? Widespread, in the UK? I remember a few isolated stories of 'community leaders' abusing their position but nothing organised or at any scale.

I don't really believe there's an organised campaign of vote tampering, I suspect any unusual changes in voter turnout or voting method may well in time come to be correlated (if it's technically possible to unpick) with cleverly targeted social media advertising campaigns to boost and suppress particular voter groups. The scandal if there is one is the lack of oversight of this type of advertising and the risk of unfair funding.

The reasons Labour lost are largely visible without much digging, the leadership was poor, their council poor, for far too long they sought the middle ground between voter blocs already highly polarised then they were thrown under the bus by the LibDems and SNP seeking tactical advantage over all other concerns. I don't think we need to invoke a malign hidden actor, they'd have lost a fair fight on the battle ground chosen for them.

jk

Barring being snookered, incumbent governments tend to call elections for Spring; generally May. Which is when the Scottish weather is at its best, and I usually take one or two weeks vacation, without a postal vote there is a good chance I would be unable to undertake my democratic duty. Postal votes are not just for those travelling overseas.

Thats interesting and worrying. Why the hell is this outsourced to a private company.

well our tax records were being processed by a subsidiary of General Motors in the 1990s (EDS or CSC?), and look at the fingerprint debacle when IBM was refusing to give back fingerprint records to various British police forces in a dispute later that decade.

Must be the only thing they're good at then!

I don't know who ricky Coxon is but for someone who calims to a be a "data nerd" I find some of his numbers a little challenging.

It won't happen in this Parliament for dead certain.

Agree.

And its nonsense like this that will stop Labour from looking deeply inside of itself and asking what went so badly wrong.

Maybe there was a little fraud in the postal votes and that should be looked at.  However Postal Votes weren't the reason Labour lost.  Being a party that was largely alien to the very communities in the north of England it once stood for ... was very much a part of the problem.  

Labour need to focus on the real problems ... not the foil hat conspiracies if they want to come back.

There are a good few inaccuracies in that article.

IDOX is not an oil and gas company - it just happens to sell some of it's facilities management products (CAFM) into that sector. It's a very small percentage of it's annual revenue.

It started off as a document management company (hence the name) before moving into Local Government software with the purchase of CAPS Solutions and has further grown by acquisition of other companies, including Plantec, Maclaren, Strand (more elections) and, recently, Halarose.

Note that CAPS Solutions already had an elections module before IDOX bought them and the purchase of Halarose was in line with the IDOX Elections business and strengthened that offering.

The company also has an interest in a number of other business areas.

I'd be amazed if there was anything in the IDOX software that is actively able to rig votes. The number of people working on the software, from initial specification, through development and QA and out to end users is far too large for there not to be some sort of whistle-blower to some forward if that were the case.

There could well be obvious issues with imaging software that is reading signatures and marks on a ballot paper and throwing them out for human confirmation and that is more likely where any rigging could be taking place.

There are lots of reasons for postal votes, I missed a general election and a local one because I was called out on a job and didn't get home until after the polls had closed. Plan was to vote after work because they are not open when I set off in the morning, since then I have used a postal vote every time. 

Labour lost because they screwed the pooch. A lot of their core voters voted for brexit, the working folk were afraid they would be taxed to death to fund their spending plan and pretty much every person I have spoken to on site for the last few years thinks Corbyn is a dick. 

You're right but to be fair none of the grown ups in the party have ever suggested they lost because of electoral fraud.

The debate I think is between those that want change in the party, led by Starmer and Nandy and those that believe we need more of the same but maybe shout louder who are led by Rebecca Long Bailey (or Jon Lansman and Len McCluskey if you're of a cynical mind). I would say though that the electoral fraud theorists seem to mainly belong to the same but shout louder faction.

Our nearest post box is 3/4 mile walk into the village - it's right next to the primary school that's used as the polling station....  choices, choices.

Given my working day is 12 hours long as standard, frequently up to 18, and with travel of an hour at each end - how do you propose I vote in an election which conflicts with my (very fluid and unpredictable) work schedule without taking a day (£250-375, and I don't have any such thing as paid holiday) off?

No one can force me to vote the way they want at home either, but one could easily force me to not vote at all by making me turn up in person at the polling station.

Given your circumstances postal voting clearly makes sense but presumably you would have always been entitled to a postal vote? Postal voting on demand for anyone with no reason needed is potentially open to massive abuse.