Election 2005: Polling cards sent to children
Further doubts were raised over the security of the voting system today when it was revealed that polling cards have been mistakenly sent to children and babies. Kiera Spear, an eight-month-old from Suffolk, received cards for the local and general elections. "She hasn't shown any interest in Mr Blair or Mr Howard or Mr Kennedy. She quite likes Thomas the Tank Engine," her mother said.
The BBC reports that cards have also been sent to three children in one family in North Somerset, and to a three-year-old girl in Leicester, while some cards in North Lincolnshire told people to vote in the wrong constituency and others in Nottinghamshire in the wrong place.
A High Court judge has meanwhile described the postal voting system as "hopelessly insecure" following an investigation into fraud in local elections in Birmingham last year. The Electoral Commission estimates that the number of people who have applied for a postal vote in this election has soared to 6.5 million, 15% of the voting public. The equivalent figure for 2001 was 1.7 million.
There are widespread concerns over the security of the system, but a legal challenge to declare it incompatible with human rights laws failed last week because any action would have to take place after the fraud had occurred. Since the general election is still a week away and since the person bringing the case – a Liberal Democrat councillor - had not been a victim of fraud, he was told he would have to wait.
With postal ballot forms already sent out it seems likely that further legal action is not far away.
Send this article to a friend