Labour reject curb on people who register to vote twice
LABOUR refused last night to support a ban on people registering to vote in two constituencies as the row over electoral fraud grew.
Tory MPs called for a change in the law, which some students may have exploited to vote twice for Jeremy Corbyn.
Downing Street also intervened yesterday, with the Prime Minister saying that anyone who illegally voted twice should be reported to police. Her spokesman said it was vital the principles of democracy were upheld.
Despite this, police in Canterbury and Lincoln – two of the university towns where double voting is said to have taken place – revealed they were not investigating the claims.
The row led to calls for an outright ban on people registering to vote in more than one constituency – students can register at both their university residence and their home address.
Conservative MP Peter Bone vowed to introduce a Commons Bill on the issue.
Ex-Tory minister Sir Henry Bellingham also called for a ban, demanding students be prevented from registering in the seat where they live while at university.
But Cat Smith, Labour spokesman for voter engagement and youth affairs, refused to endorse the calls and claimed that the Government should be cautious about any change that might deter people from voting.
Mr Bone accused Labour of a cynical attempt to get more votes. He said: ‘ Nobody doubts now that this happened so why wouldn’t they want to take a very simple measure to stop it.
‘Are they so undemocratic that they don’t believe in one person, one vote?’
Sir Henry, who has raised the issue twice in the Commons, said: ‘If you are a student registered to vote at home then you should be voting there, not in a university seat you live in for a short time.’ Yesterday, the Mail revealed that thousands of students may have voted twice to try to put Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street.
It came after the Electoral Commission said it was investigating ‘troubling’ evidence of illegality on polling day after students boasted on social media of voting twice. It is not against the law to register to vote in two or more constituencies, provided you vote in only one.
The electoral watchdog warned that a change in the law could be need to prevent the practice, which carries a minimum fine of £5,000.
It has received more than 1,000 complaints from the public and 38 complaints from MPs. Mr Bone said thousands of students were suspected of voting twice.
They were targeted by Labour, who pledged to scrap tuition fees. It said a ban on registering in more than one constituency would be undemocratic and insisted the party had encouraged young people to vote.
‘Double voting is a serious crime and it is vital that the police have the resources they need to bring about prosecution,’ Miss Smith said. ‘However, we urge caution when looking at measures to tackle this issue – a blanket ban on being regis- tered at two addresses would exclude those who for reasons of work or study need to be registered in two places. ‘This cannot be an attempt to make it harder for young people to register.’ Asked whether Theresa May believed anyone caught voting twice should be prosecuted, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘Yes. One person, one vote is a core principle of the democratic process in this country. If anyone has evidence of an individual voting twice, they should report it to the local returning officer and police.’
An increase in the number of younger voters is thought to have fuelled the surge in support for Labour.
Nearly two million applied to vote after Mrs May announced a snap election.
‘Core principle of democracy’
ASIGNIFICANTLY higher proportion of the young voted on June 8 than at any General Election in living memory.
Some students were lured by Labour’s cynical promise to abolish tuition fees. All the same, it must, in principle, be a good thing that more people under 25 engaged in the democratic process than in the recent past.
However, an unknown number have allegedly ignored a fundamental rule: that it is customary on these occasions to vote only once. In fact — though youthful miscreants may not realise it — to vote twice is a criminal offence carrying a maximum fine of £5,000.
According to the Electoral Commission (the independent body that oversees elections), there are ‘ troubling’ reports that multiple voting may have taken place six weeks ago. Although there is little concrete evidence so far, 38 MPs have highlighted malpractice.
The nub of the problem is that, because students have term-time and home addresses, they can register perfectly legally to vote in more than one place. That may seem reasonable. After all, no one knew Theresa May would call a snap election in June, when they are meant to be studying.
Unfortunately, there is no national database of electors, so it is possible to vote in two places (either physically, or using a postal vote in one case) without the authorities cottoning on.
Electoral fraud is a kind of social cancer at the best of times. On June 8 it could conceivably have affected the knife-edge outcome, which left the Tories eight seats short of an overall majority.
In constituencies with high student populations — Canterbury, Lincoln, Oxford, and even Kensington — sitting Conservative MPs lost their seats by small margins. In normally true blue Kensington, Labour beat the Tories by a mere 20 votes.
Incidentally, Mrs May might not be in her present pickle if she had waited two or three weeks, by which time many of the students in university towns would have either gone home or on holiday. Evidently no one in No 10 thought of that.
Cheats
Just how close the result was is underlined by the calculation that if the Prime Minister had won just 400 more votes in the eight closest seats, the Tories would have had an outright majority. This dramatically illustrates what a difference a few determined cheats can make.
What must be done? The Electoral Commission, which at the best of times can be a rather lumbering organisation, must cooperate with the police in ascertaining whether fraud did take place. The police do not so far appear to be taking much, if any, interest.
And Parliament and the Electoral Commission must urgently tighten procedures so that people who are registered in two seats should be required to choose in advance which one they will vote in at future general elections.
The truth is that the whole system is scandalously lax, based as it is on the idea that in a democracy everyone respects the notion of ‘one man, one vote’ and will play by the rules. If such a spirit of fairness once held sway, I fear it no longer does.
Would it be too much to ask everyone who goes to a polling station to show ID, as well as a voting card, which currently need not be produced? And why can’t there be a national electoral database instantly accessible by every council overseeing general elections?
Moreover, it’s increasingly clear that the whole system of postal votes — the number of which has risen over recent elections, and now accounts for not far short of a fifth of all votes cast — is open to abuse.
They were at the centre of the voting scam in the East London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which led to the removal of its mayor, Lutfur Rahman, in 2015. An election court found he had registered fake voters and induced his supporters to use these votes fraudulently on his behalf.
No doubt there are instances where postal voting should be allowable — absence on holiday, for example, or longterm illness — but the traditional idea that, if at all possible, each of us should turn up in person to cast a vote should be defended with more robustness than it has been.
Ban
It’s obvious reform is needed — obvious, that is, to everyone except the Labour leadership. It’s little short of tragic that the party’s response to allegations of double-voting on June 8 has been so dismissive.
The Corbynista Cat Smith, shadow minister for voter engagement and youth affairs, has warned against a knee-jerk reaction in view of the increase in registration and turnout. She opposes a ‘blanket ban’ on students being registered at two addresses. The reason, of course, is that Labour has been the beneficiary of young people voting in greater numbers, and doesn’t want to do anything to put them off, even if it means turning a blind eye to possible criminal activity.
Labour knows it has much more support among students and the young than rival parties, which mostly explains its wish to extend the vote to 16 year olds. Why rock the boat by complaining about voting irregularities that may have harmed the hated Tories?
But perhaps I am too kind. Is it possible that the modern Labour party actually condones a little double-voting so long as it’s to its advantage?
I look at Tory Cabinet ministers squabbling like little children. Then I look at Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell — men who have given their whole lives to hard-Left causes — and at the focused political machine Momentum, which is in the process of purging the Labour Party.
And I tremble at the comparison between silly, amateurish, fractious Tories and altogether more serious Corbynistas, who will bend or break almost any rule in order to get their hands on power.
Only on Monday, Labour killed off a debate about the abuse heaped on MPs during the election — much of it by hard-Left activists on Tory candidates — by raising filibustering points to do with Commons procedure. The Corbynistas are professional, disciplined and ruthless. Of course, I’ve no evidence that Labour colluded in any way in double-voting to the detriment of the Tories, though the party’s leadership must have been aware of students boasting of it on social media.
I merely point out that in 2004 Labour was responsible for probably the most egregious case of electoral fraud in modern times when police in Birmingham found candidates and supporters handling unsealed postal ballots in a deserted warehouse two days before an election.
Threat
I know, I know — the Tories may be far from blameless. Craig Mackinlay, Conservative MP for South Thanet, faces charges of exceeding spending limits during his party’s campaign to win the seat in 2015. Several other Tory MPs were investigated for months and their reputations were dragged through the mud before they were told there were no charges.
All that should be said is that the allegations against Mr Mackinlay concern one constituency. Yet multiple voting may have taken place in many constituencies, and no one is remotely in the frame.
The BBC, it should also be noted, lavished hours of airtime on the Tories’ alleged misbehaviour in South Thanet, though it has so far barely mentioned the suggestion there may have been cheating on June 8.
I don’t know the extent to which it affected the outcome. What I do know is that our precious democratic arrangements are under threat, and one of our great political parties seems perfectly content.