Some students voted six times, claim MPS
Tory MPS call for change in law amid fears that some Corbyn supporters used friends’ polling cards
Conservative MPS fear student voters collected friends’ polling cards and cast multiple ballots in an attempt to get Jeremy Corbyn elected. One MP reported two students who were not registered for postal or proxy votes but both cast a ballot in the general election. Other MPS reported students bragging about voting as many as six times each by taking the polling cards of friends who did not intend to vote and pretending to be them.
TORY MPS fear student voters collected friends’ polling cards and cast multiple ballots in an attempt to get Jeremy Corbyn elected, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. An MP reported two students to the authorities after it emerged that neither of them were registered for postal or proxy votes but both cast a ballot in the election despite being out of the country.
The MP said that despite his complaints after the election, no action has been taken as he warned the authorities were not taking the problem seriously enough.
Other MPS reported groups of students bragging about voting as many as six times each by taking the polling cards of friends who did not intend to vote and pretending to be them. Voters are not asked to show identification at the polling booth and election staff are not obliged to ask people to prove their address. Last night it emerged that two Tory MPS plan to introduce a private member’s bill in Parliament this week to ban people from registering in two places for general election votes.
The bill, brought by Christopher Chope and Peter Bone, is expected to gather widespread support across the House. Chris Skidmore, minister for the constitution, said: “The Government will not tolerate abuse of the voting system and is looking at further ways to tackle what is a serious crime.” The revelations came after the Electoral Commission called on the Government to urgently investigate ways to block duplicate voting where people, often students, are registered in more than one place. Yesterday Theresa May’s spokesman said the Government was looking closely at the issue.
They added that anyone with suspicions about electoral fraud should report them to the police. The spokesman said: “One person, one vote is a core principle of the democratic process in this country. It is vital this is upheld. It is illegal to vote in more than one location at a general election or other national polls such as a referendum. It’s clearly explained on the poll card that conviction carries a financial penalty.
“If anyone has evidence of an individual voting twice at the same election they should report it to the local returning officer and to the police.”
Sir Eric Pickles, the senior Conservative who conducted the party’s review of electoral rules, told The Daily Telegraph that voting in more than one place and impersonation is a “relatively common fraud” and the “biggest and most prevalent abuse” of the system by students. One former MP who lost his seat to Labour said turnout in two of the student areas of his constituency was so high questions were raised immediately about how up to 95 per cent of students in some areas voted when most were not at university at the time.
Karl Mccartney said: “We have a screenshot of someone who said they voted twice on the day and we also suspect people were taking other people’s polling cards and impersonating them.”
The voting system in Britain has been heavily reliant on trust ever since an equal franchise was extended to women in 1928 and the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1969. No one is checked or required to present identity documents. Postal votes are available, which can lead to people being pressed to back particular candidates. And proxy votes can be cast in one constituency without proper controls over whether the same person has voted in another.
In Northern Ireland, intimidation of voters was an issue during the Troubles and, latterly, postal vote fraud has been identified in some constituencies with large south Asian populations. In much of the country, however, this phenomenon has been largely absent and has probably had little influence on election outcomes.
However, modern communications have made this a serious matter. The Electoral Commission is investigating allegations that thousands of students may have voted twice – at their home address and at their university – to try to put Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street. Previously safe seats like Canterbury and Lincoln changed hands because of the large student vote and some on social media sites boasted they had cast two ballots.
One way of stopping this would be to allow only one place of registration. Another would be to disallow proxy voting but this risks disenfranchising people who simply cannot be in their constituencies on election day. Far better would be to impose tougher punishments for breaching the law. This is a serious affront to democracy yet at the moment perpetrators are usually only fined up to £5,000. If a few culprits were sent to prison the practice would soon stop.