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Tuesday, 3 February 2009

It's a good job I am not suspicious

It's a good job I am not suspicious because if I was then this story would have me in a feverish state. Apparently:
"The SNP has called for an inquiry after it emerged marked electoral registers for the Glenrothes by-election were lost by the courts.

The registers, which are the only record of who voted in the Westminster election, must be kept for a year.

Tricia Marwick, Nationalist MSP for Central Fife, said the blunder was "beyond belief".

Labour comfortably saw off an SNP challenge to hold the Glenrothes seat, in Fife.

Fife Council said it had a receipt proving that the authority handed the electoral registers over to the sheriff clerk at Kirkcaldy.

Labour's Lindsay Roy held on to the seat with a majority of more than 6,000 in the by-election, which was held following the death of sitting MP John MacDougall.

Ms Marwick has now raised concerns that there are no records to show who voted in an election which had a much higher turnout than anticipated.

Ms Marwick called for an independent inquiry, adding: "It is almost beyond belief that a by-election which attracted media coverage throughout the UK, which delivered such a surprise result and had a much higher turnout than anticipated, now has no records to show who actually voted."

A spokesman for the Scottish Court Service said the incident was being investigated and described it as "deeply regrettable".

"Despite comprehensive searches for this document we have been unable to locate the marked register requested within Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court," said the spokesman.

"We can confirm that the sheriff clerk at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court took receipt of these items following the Glenrothes by-election in November and that the voting papers for this election, which were deposited at the same time, are available."

Higher than expected turnout, surprise result, victory for Labour and the marked electoral registers go missing... I wonder if the high turnout was a result of postal ballots, I am sure you remember how postal ballots have been used in the past to boost votes for certain parties.

In 2007 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe reported that:
"It is clear that the electoral system in Great Britain is open to electoral fraud. This vulnerability is mainly the result of the, rather arcane, system of voter registration without personal identifiers. It was exacerbated by the introduction of postal voting on demand [in 2001] "

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