I have long believed that the introduction of Postal Voting for all would be a disaster, and this morning my beliefs were confirmed by someone whom I would describe as "Being in the Know".
The nearby town (fortunately in a different constituency than the one in which I reside) has a large Asian community. I am assured that there are effectively two clans or tribes, and the leaders decide how the votes are to be cast. Families are expected to apply for postal votes, and the heads of each household are expected to show the completed forms to the clan leader before they are posted. I have no reason to doubt what I have been told, as this merely confirms what I learnt before I retired.
I had a young Asian lad working for me, living in digs locally although his parents lived up north. He told me that his father expected him to apply for a postal vote and that his father would tell him how to vote. He was also under pressure from locals, where he was in digs, to abide by the local decision on how to vote. He just wanted to do his own thing and was looking for a way out; I suggested that he "forgot" to apply for a postal vote, but he indicated that the clan would expect to see his application! He also believed that his father had applied for a vote in his name at their home up north, but didn't want to get his father into trouble.
It's been said before by others, but its worth saying again:-
As a result of postal voting we now have a third world electoral system.
So,
TO HELL WITH AV, JUST BRING BACK ONE MAN, ONE VOTE
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Apparently 7 million people now use postal voting. It should be restricted to those people who are physically incapable of not getting to the polling station such as the disabled and the elderly infirm. It's obvious that this was always going to be open to fraud, especially in communities such as Asian communities who also tend to vote Labour but then wasn't this why Labour introduced postal voting in the first place? Forget AV, equalise the boundaries and scrap all but essential postal voting.
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