Police investigate postal vote complaints
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The prospect of extending postal voting at the next general election appeared to recede last night after new claims of irregularities in this month's local elections.
The prospect of extending postal voting at the next general election appeared to recede last night after new claims of irregularities in this month's local elections.
Channel 4 News revealed that police were investigating complaints after 984 postal votes were issued in unusual circumstances in the Pendle Borough Council election in Lancashire.
The votes, issued for four marginal wards on the knife-edge council, were sent to "common addresses" in the local area, which were not the addresses of the electors concerned.
In one case, 61 votes for Bradley ward in Pendle were sent to two terraced houses several miles away in Rochdale. In Whitefield ward, 49 votes were sent to one address alone. Most of the votes were sent to votes from the Asian community.
The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Greaves, an agent for the party in Pendle, raised the issued with the returning officer after some electors said they had not voted even though ballots had been filled in their name. Sam Younger, chairman of the Electoral Commission, said it would look at the allegations as part of its review into the postal voting experiments.
In a separate development, ministers are said to have decided to stop using their powers to order councils to hold referendums on elected mayors. Labour's failure in four out of the seven mayoral elections held on 2 May has persuaded the Government to pull back from the project for several months.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments