Postal voting regulations must be tightened as a matter of urgency by the next government

The Daily Mail splashes this morning on a story which was also covered in the Guardian yesterday, surrounding the alarming fact that at least fifty criminal inquiries into electoral fraud have already been launched with respect to this Thursday's elections.

The Mail states that the Metropolitan Police alone are considering 28 claims of "major abuses" across 12 boroughs, with four separate investigations in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets - as revealed by Paul Goodman in this ConHome exclusive last week.

Most of these cases can be traced back to the ease with which people can now apply for a postal vote on demand, without having to provide identification - a development introduced by the Labour Government to make voting easier.

7 million people out of 46 million have reportedly registered for postal votes at this election, with some authorities seeing literally thousands of applications made shortly before the April 20th deadline.

Many of these have come in marginal seats where the postal votes could make all the difference between a Labour MP hanging on or being ousted, and the prospect of the legitimacy of results being contested in the courts later in the year and elections having to be re-run is not an edifying one.

Quite simply, I believe that we should return to the traditional arrangement whereby everyone is expected to vote in person, unless medically-certified disability makes that difficult or impossible, or a holiday or business trip requires a postal vote as a one-off arrangement.

This would massively reduce the scope for electoral fraud and restore some confidence and integrity to our electoral system.

Voting for our elected representatives should not be something that is done on a whim in your armchair, akin to picking up the phone to back a contestant in a TV talent contest.

Look at how people in new democracies queue for literally hours to exercise their to democratic right (for which people have in recent years sacrificed their lives) and that short stroll to the local school every few years doesn't seem such a hardship or inconvenience.

I sincerely hope that the government elected later this week will address this issue as a matter of urgency.

Jonathan Isaby