http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEzY2tnwExs :)

So much for democracy. This is outrageous and needs to be addressed immediately.

Comment@2 Faye....i thought the video was quite good :)

"Allegations are circulating that votes are already being bought for as little as £20"

Inflation ... the tory candidate bought off Rab C Nesbitt with a doormatt in one episode .. and that picture of the Parliament .. well, it doesn't exactly inspire thoughts like "please vote [for anyone]"

Faye. I agree 100%.

And the ministers that scrapped checks designed to prevent abuse of postal votes belonged to which party?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article168...

What an honest government we have. No surprise the Scottish Exec didn't want any more checks. They been learning from their big brother

Vote early - vote often. You know it makes sense.

MadJockMacMad

Do you think Tory Bliars mate Sir Ian Bliar will do him a favour and not charge Tory Bliars cheif of staff before May the 3rd? I think he'll wait until after May the 3rd to charge him. Just shows how corrupt and unstable the British Goverment is.

I agree with Winston Churchill to a certain extent aswell, (Not the Winston Churchill),

Vote Labour and you are voting for Scottish soldiers to be sent to Iraq.

Vote Labour you are supporting Nuclear Weapons and Power Plants.

Vote Labour and you vote corruption and lies.

Vote Labour and you'll get the same 4 years of sh*te, redundence's, closing down of local hospitals, more call centres, less manual work and trades.

We have nothing to lose, Roll on May the 3rd its time for change.

The worry about election fraud with the electronic voting system is clearly exaggerated in comparison to how open to fraud the postal votes are.

When we take everything together though its pretty worrying and the encumbants are the lost likely to benefit as they have the most to lose. I just hope the observers spot any abnormalities.

The opening paragraph says it all.

The sooner Labour is voted out the better.

They daren't check the votes - that would upset the victory speeches already written for wee Joke, and the Hootsmans lavish spread already set up with 'Sensational Labour victory!'

Only kidding - I hope!

#9 IGNORANCE IS BLISS,and you are a self proclaimed ignoramus of the fist order.

With reference to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6566563.stm see: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3382#more-3382 for how New Labour spooks might make sure New Labour win the forthcoming Scottish elections!

See also http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=593992007 for evidence of tampering with freedom of speech by New Labour!

"ministers scrapped checks"

What it should read surely, is
"LABOUR ministers scrapped checks".
As usual Labour mired in sleaze and corruption, when will it ever end?

The only folk out to defraud Scotland are the Unionists.

The voting system has always been fraudulent to some extent. There is a series of numbers on the ballot paper, and also next to your name and address, so anyone can - in theory anyway - check up and find out how you voted.

Why bother with booths and claim privacy in that case?? Secret ballot my a**e!

It'll be alright on the night. There are election monitors coming in from Nigeria and Florida to make sure everything is above board.

Not counting Labour Polling adminstrators.

I find it astonishing that polish immigrants are actually allowed to vote given that;

a. they're not citizens.

b. Most of them are only here temporarily to earn some money for a year before going back.

Police are checking for Electoral fraud!

No surprises there then – or will it turn out to be nothing more than a ‘passing interest?’

Let's hope they are enthusiastic, and more active, to achieve some success than hitherto, in some of the previous 'fraudulent looking' activities by our trusted and loyal (joking!) elected MSP's in their 'expenses claims' adventures! The overall attitude of the Police, in such matters, seemed to be one of complete indifference to them - and left it entirely to the 'Political Club' members to deal 'with their own' - what a joke!

I can see only one reason for anyone altering voting systems - especially when it's being done by those requiring the votes; mainly it seems, to protect that vital part of their lives – the well paid job, in order to maintain their very comfortable and financially rewarding lifestyle, which we the poor, and poorer taxpayers have not only ‘bestowed’ on them, but foolishly left it all under their own control, for better or worse, possibly much worse for the taxpayers!

It seems, these days, especially in the 'Political field', any associated activities for personal gain - legal or otherwise, appear to be considered, by the Political set, as on equal footing with each other!

However, to the taxpayers regret, the ‘otherwise runners’ are galloping ahead of the field, and achieving a whole new interpretation (wrongly, of course!) to the meanings of Loyalty, Trustworthiness and Principle! The true meaning now completely lost in the morass of Political ‘gobbledygook’ – no doubt beiug done for our benefit, to better understand the Political way of life and their attitudes towards it and ‘us!’

Nowadays, the electorate seem to represent little more than a simple Political statistic, sometimes being very inconvenient, so unless we ‘fight the cause’ and keep both eyes on the ‘game’ can we really expect any better opinions from our elected) loyal and trustworthy representatives (hopeful

Nothing would surprise me with this Labour government in charge.

All normal standards of propriety, honesty and competence have declined in anything they have got their mits on-whether it is illegal wars, cash for honours, school examinations, the armed forces, NHS, etc etc-I do not trust them!

This trio of journalists have almost concocted an article about postal voting concerns in an attempt to manufacture news where none exits? In the chaos of the 1945 General Election, once all the votes were in and the result was declared, the Tories claimed this was how Labour had managed a landslide win!? Subsequent enquiries found this sour grapes allegation to be totally unfounded! Indeed, it filtered back to Blighty that hundreds of commissioned officers overseas had by various means attempted to influence or downright coerce their men into voting for Mr. Churchill! However, British servicemen had learned from their wartime experiences and had no intention of being dragged back to the servile 1930s! Indeed, the last time people voted in any significant numbers was in 1945! The average turnout at General Elections has continued to fall ever since and Thatcher's 1979 victory was a low point when she gained control with the smallest share of the popular vote ever! It seems to me that the government through the Electoral Reform Society should have been encouraging more and more voters to use the postal system and over the years closely monitoring its use and ensuring it was not open to fraud like examples found in recent elections in England? More voters, especially the elderly, should use this system to ensure they can cast their vote rather than neglect their civic responsibilities?
Lachie Todd

#20

Beat me to it.

All this hassle about the postal vote yet the postal vote is, in our area at least, not be mailed until the middle of week commencing 23rd April 2007. This naturally means that any person away on holiday or business for more than 7 days prior to the election is being denied a vote.

One guy stated quite a long time ago that it was not the poeple who vote that count, but the people that count that count. What got me in council elections was that the second count always gave two or three percent to the opposition. I think that the sooner they get on to electronic counting then we can get rid of the scruffy counters and then worry about the electronic counters.

Electronic voting sure, but I really think traditional spot counts should be made as well. We all know what happened in Florida! I wonder if Bushies brother has been twittering in Bliars ear.

#25 WeeBerty
Extortion is happening. For the wife to use my proxy vote is costing me several bars of Lindt chocolate and a meal out on the 6th May!

This problem has been around for a long time. I suppose highlighting it this close to the election will keep it in the forefront of everyones minds and be no surprise when the losing (second place) party start claiming fraud. Especially if the result is quite close.

FIX THIS OUTRAGE ..NOW !!!!

If this fraud does happen would anyone care to offer me odds on which party will be up to their necks in it. Can I also have odds which parts of the country will see such examples.

My finger points to Labour and the greater Glasgow area. Lets face it this may be one of the few way for Labour to get ANY votes now.

question for M2.

Have you managed to get anywhere yet putting holEs in THE GREAT DECEPTION? You have had nearly a month now, can we assume the document stands up to scrutiny after all, stories abound of trolls pouring over it and can't quite dent it.

Facts are chiels that winnae ding!

We need to get rid of these Labour cretins from both Holyrood and local government. Zero vision, siingle cell brains, skint knuckles and in need of some million years of evolution before we trust them again. We need a revolution they need evolution.

labour are a bunch of frauds

There isn't anyone that I know who are going to vote Labour so if they do win the election up here then there's been a fraud committed. The parcel of rogues need parcelling and jailing.

Having worked in elections and known one official, at least, going on from the polling station to be a through-the-night votes counter (how alert can anybody be on a non-stop 24 hour stint?) - three members of the same family at neighbouring polling station tables, a senior presiding officer holding up a ballot box trying to shake out a paper that had gone in the wrong box - there is every need to tighten up on all procedures relating to elections. Too often they are conducted in a too-smug manner by people more concerned with the little do's and don't's and not respectful enough of the right of everybody to have their voting preferences safely recorded - which is what the whole thing is all about isn't it.

Two English Lib Dems are currently serving 18months each for vote rigging (liars, buggers and theives Blog) and the system is even more open to abuse with all the "new" voters entitled to a say in our government for the short time they will be here.
Hopefully anything dodgy will be flagged up early doors and investigated impartially.
I couldn't stand another year of this shower of chancers.

It seems that this ballot fraud is another one of the benefits of "enrichment" that the government goes on about.

I seem to recall we had this problem a couple of years ago when two Asian Councillors were jailed for similar offences.

The links are here:-http://isupporttheresistance.blogspot.com/

Good Luck to the B.N.P. on May 3rd.

How Labour must be reeling in that feeling of invincibility!. First they import their own voter base, and then, just to make sure, they fiddle the electoral system to such an extent that we are no longer a democracy. This was very apparent during last years local elections, when Labour had concerns that the BNP were gaining massive popularity, with a number of cases where re-counts and loss of votes (BNP funnily enough!) were investigated. I feel that it is time for the smaller parties, or those interested in democracy, to insist that the ballot boxes are kept in open view at all times, but how do we combat this postal fraud, which as a method of voting has obviously been encouraged by Labour and its shadow parties for this reason?. I wonder if I was to go to Poland or any of the Asian or African countries would I be included in their elections?...This is why I will be voting for the BNP from now on, the other parties just cant be trusted I'm afraid, and whats more I AM PROUD TO PROCLAIM MY INTENTION, The resistance starts here.

#20 Roy,

The Republicans kicked them out of Florida - so much for American democracy - it's nearly as bad as Scottish democracy under the pro-unionist New Labour!

Twenty quid for a vote. Skinflints!

Here in Edinburgh, Labour essentially offered £400 per head to the 30,000 Edinburgh households outside the bypass when their disastrous Congestion Charging referendum was held.

You'd have had to pay £2 daily to cross the bypass inbound but NOT if you were an Edinburgh resident. Free entry to the city and hopefully less busy roads as the charge was intended to discourage those other pesky Mid, East, West Lothian people from daring to enter ("it's a local city for local people").

In spite of those votes in the bag, the overall vote went about 80% against the plan. After such a massive rejection of their plan and the £9 million already wasted, did anyone resign - not a chance.

I'm with the SNP and Labour spokespeople on this - it appears a typically "fanciful", overwritten scare piece. If this anonymous man existed, why aren't we told which parties these three activists worked for and should be not be reporting it to the polis?

"election fraud" - for a moment there, I thought the fraud they were talking about was Jack McConnell......

Yabanci, you are so right, the congestion charge fiasco where all those millions were wasted, and they already knew that it was going to be unpopular, so why not try making themselves more appealing to the electorate and spend it on making a proper job of the new hospital (remember the dodgy electrics-probably the same in the pocket firm that built their fairytale castle in Holyrood). I remember hearing the chap in charge of the Toll fiasco being interviewed on the radio, and what an arrogant self righteous little lefty he came over as-why has he not been held accountable for this huge loss of public money?, as anyone else who is a few quid short on their "community" charge is nailed to the floor. The sooner Labour are kicked out the better, and it should not be left there-if we get a proper government in they should make a promise to the electorate that those who were up to their eyes in all this corruption and sleaze will be held accountable!

This is dreadful news, but not unexpected. In its drive to increase turnout, the Labour Party has cynacally laid the whole democratic process wide open to wide-scale fraud and abuse. In spite of strong condemnation by the Electoral commission, nothing is being done to check the validityof postal votes.

We bang on about our rights in today's society, Well, what aboout our responsibilities? Is it too much to ask that every year or so, we get off our backsides and get down to a Polling Place!!??+

Postal voting ought to be abolished except for cases of real need such as housebound individuals.

Never mind fraudulent irregularities - the bureaucracy has screwed up big-time.

Scottish students studying away from home in other Scottish cities get two polling cards this year - one at their home address and one at their halls of residence.

So much for the integrity of our "democratic" electoral syatem.

#50 - neither of my offspring, studying away in other Scottish cities, have two polling cards; the only way that would happen is if they had bothered to register themselves there as well as here. Considering how much effort they put into anything other than having a good time, that's as likely as a Tory landslide in the May elections.....

This is frightening!

I have just completed my own Postal Vote for the Local Council Elections in my town , the only vote I have this time round. I had to give my date of birth and sign an accompanying form which states that this signature will be verified against the Postal Vote Application I filled in last Autumn. To do so for all Postal Votes they will not be counting the votes in total until 9am on Friday.

Now if Local Councils can do this here in England why not for the Holyrood Elections? In the last couple of years Postal Votes have been available to all Electors as of right instead of requiring some need such as age or infirmity or occupational or holiday absence on Polling day. With the increase in Postal Votes there have been cases of abuse. Indeed such an allegation was made regarding a Ward in my town last year but insufficient evidence was obtained to result in further action. In other areas prosecutions have resulted and by-elections held.

People in other nations have looked to Britain for running a fair system of elections and even the USA envied us during their problems with the Presidential Elections which resulted in GW Bush becoming their Leader in 2000.

Before it is too late the Scottish Executive should reverse this ruling and restore confidence in this most important of elections which may well decide a nation's future!

#20 & 44, It wouldn't count if smiling Jimmy wasn't montering the poll. #44 truth is that Mr. Gore didn't win the election by inventing the internet couldn't win with innuendos, smoke and mirrors in
Florida and and defranchising our troops overseas. Has now become an enviromential expert.

What we call absentee vote I thake it you call postal votes. They are good and helps everyone persons out of their district vote. I have been voting since '62 and I trust the pin and card much more that electornic (computer) I can see my vote being recorded on the card but all computers are only as good as the software. Garbage in garbage out and they say there is no way of checking the totals in the computer.

I would say America is much sophicated in voting, we still have ghost voting in Chicage but in the Southwest and West coast they import persons from our Southern neighbors to vote. Much more expensive, their payoff is the right to social security without paying into it, free medical care, housing and education at the taxpayer expenses. Must say we have good reformers out West. They want everyone to have a drivers license to vote but to be fair they demand that the illegals get a drives licens so as not to discriminate against them.

They also want proxy voting, drive by voting and all the other tools to make fraudulant voting legal. Trouble is that our polls are opened sixteen hours and having work many different shifts I was still able to cast my vote in my proper voting place.

You have the same problem as we do but reading about having certain check in place in one country and not in another would make me very suspicious and I wouldn't be asking but demanding.

#32 That democrat party has moved from that lie and moved to another one. You are a litttle out of date, best to visit their web site for an update.

#22. Who told you the Poles are going home? Their not going anywhere. I'm working as a polling clerk for this election and half the people at the training were Polish. Hey, I'm no bigot, but we're talking invasion here. We've just handed over the keys to the kingdom and what little is left of our way of life is disappearing fast I'm afraid p.s- at the election training it was clear that fraudulent voting is an absolute doddle.

Remember Labour have previous:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/264034.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4406575.stm

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article1294927.ece

And #50 - This has always been the case. As a student you can choose which seat to vote in.

#22 and others, the Polish citizens have the right to vote in all elections other than UK Parliamentary. We have the same right to vote in elections in EU countries should we choose to reside in any of them.

I don't think when we signed up to this that anybody expected Poles, for instance, to make up 10-12% of the electorate in some towns. It is legal, but not fair on regional parties and anti-EU parties since people who have barely arrived in the country could vote down UKIP, SNP or Plaid Cymru and impose their preferred candidate, yet could have left the country long before his/her mandate had expired.

Stalin made the statement about those who vote counting for nothing, those who count the votes count for everything. Still applies in Belarus and places like that.

#51, & 55.

Two polling cards means two opportunities to vote.

Nobody has to produce identification at a polling station and impersonation is not an uncommon practice.

Formal identification is a pre-requisite if you want to open a bank account, engage the services of a solicitor, apply for a job and so on. It should be at the ballot box as well.

To answer #19, the idea that the Vote is Secret is a myth. Each Ballot paper has a number on it as he says and the Voter's Number from the Electoral Register is written on the counterfoil, thus anyone with the authority to do so can check which paper was issued to whom and thus how they voted.

Of course the man in the street cannot discover such information but the "Powers that Be" can. Ballot Papers are retained for a number of years after each Election.

Please Mr Editor will you do us all a big favour - prior to this election print in banner headlines the names of the ministers rsponsible for deciding that the rudimentary checks on postal vote developed after fraudulent experiences in England are not neccessary in Scotland.

If voters are still floating the best thing they can do is vote for anyone except Labour or Libdem who are responsible for this charade.

Fraudulent Voting Systems ? Reminicent of the U.S.A. Bush Election and a close friend of Blair.
Desperation knows no bounds. We must all take whatever action we can, to avoid a similar catasrophic result in Scotland on May 3rd 2007.
Blair et al, and all Unionist Parties know their time is up! They have had a free field since 1707, notwithstanding, that the ordinary citizen in Scotland did not have the franchise to block the take over of our country, under the guise of an agreeable union of the two distinct countries England and Scotland.

When we are once again an independent sovereign country, both countries will enjoy a much happier relationship, have equal respect for each other's sculture and history. Above all continued friendship.
But Scotland will be free of Westminster doctrinaire policies, that inflict horrendous fataltities on ordinary human beings in other sovereign countries, whose cultural, religious and political life we have but little understanding of, and indeed,mask nefarious activities far removed from "Freeing ourselves from the threat of weapons of mass destruction".

Mac MHic Raonuill

Peter Murrell, the chief executive of the SNP, said: "It is fanciful. I can't accept that it could happen. None of the parties have heard of anything wrong going on." 'Nuff said.

Quite right and not before time.

When the "kitchen sink chemists" blow themselves up they should be denied medical treatment too!

Why does this surprise anyone? At the very least, and giving our lords and masters the benefit of the doubt, it is symptomatic of staggering complacency and incompetence that even basic checks will not be carried out.

If I were a cynic, I might suggest that Labour expect this sort of fraud to play to their advantage in urban seats... but I'm not, so I won't.

http://mreugenides.blogspot.com

General Elections has continued to drop since Maggies victory was a low point when she gained control with the smallest % of the popular vote ever!

# 61 As regards fiddled Postal Votes (since these became so easily available) I think all there have been instances of supporters of ALL the main Political parties being guilty of such actions. Obviously the Leadership of each Party will deny that such wrongdoing occurs with their consent, and I am not saying that any reputable Party would condone such practices. Of course they would deny any involvement should one of their members be caught.

I would however be far happier were the same checks in force North of the Border as there will be here in England when the votes are counted.

#Too many to tabulate
According to the post today,there must be an awful lot of dishonest folk in Scottish politics,or is it just the death throes of a party that really knows it's going no where,or,is paranoia the new politic.
Some of these posters today should really get out a bit more in the fresh air,what a load of rubbish,look at what you say before you post please.

The possibility of postal voting being misappropriated should not exist. If they cannot guarantee the count (which clerarly is the case)then checks which are in place south of the border should automatically be here. Are we going to have a false result which stands because nobody knows what if any error exists,and only the falsely elected government has the authority to investigate ? THIS IS NOT ON!

Either we have a system which is reliable or we dont hold the election until such time as we do.The count could be out by a country mile in terms of who forms the executive,but nobody will ever know about it outside the criminals who organised the false count.
This MUST have been known for a long time

and looks like its intentional !

IF THIS IS LABOURS most recent con its time to start taking matters into our own hands and I dont mean through the dodgy ballot boxes!

If Labour cant buy an election win and the press and media cant bully the electorate into voting like the sheep that theyve been for 50 years then Nu Labour will just rig the result!
Democracy is dead! Has it ever been alive!?

It doesn't matter who you vote for, you'll get a Lib Dem sitting in the kiddie high chair crowning one of the two parties that got more votes than it did. Is that democracy? With this in mind, £20 a vote seems like a good deal.

Imagine being so low as to accept a mere £20 for your suferage? Many people are turned off by politics due to the politicians (of every party) but bear in mind, if you don't vote and the parties that get in do not represent your belief, you have no right to complain.

As for the Lib Dems, don't give them your second vote, give it to the Tories or someone else to allow for balance. If the LiB Dems get a sniff of power you know that they will fudge, bleed and dilute everything down to the lowest common denominator as they have done for the past 8 years. Nicol Stephen and Tavish Scott have the highest "blandwith" of any politicians for many a year. Ross Finnie will give you the death of politics by "vanillaside". Pallitable but fundementally tasteless. Tories will also go for the referendum because this will be what England want too, freedom from Scotland.

Heard that <1 labour councillor> picked up 3,000 blank <postal forms,t<his was for SouthLanarkshire Council.
nothing illegal< in this> but last time 40 were required???

Living in the looney tune utopia of Tower Hamlets I assure you postal fraud is a major threat. In one ward, limehouse, a whole tower block had it's votes stolen.

Labour and Galloway's vermin were up to their necks in chicanery. The Asian population know nothing more than corruption and fraud. Bangladesh is the most corrupt country in the world. They didn't all descend in East London and see the light on their travels.

The guilty in Birmingham were also Asian. No doubt the looney tunes, rather than face reality will start the cry of racism.

Oh by the way Galloways vermin Respect party couldn't elect one white candidate. and at the last local election the Asian population in a bethnal green ward elected two labour and one liberal, guess what colour the losing labour candidate was.

Get Labour out by any means. Do unto them. Any thing is better than labour. Apart from the scumbag left wing racists of Galloway's vermin, respect.

Galloways scum go by the scottish socialist banner

I've had it with the idea that if you don't vote for someone you have no right to complain. It assumes that for one thing there is someone worth voting for (there isn't - they are all self-serving liars) and second that your vote counts. If you live in a ward where one party has and always will have an overwhelming majority your vote counts for nothing. This is actually how the Lib Dems get any votes at all - they are the party people vote for when their party can't win. Tony Blair's last election he gets a huge majority with less votes than John Major lost by - more people didn't vote or voted for someone else, this is Tony's mandate. Democracy where a minority elects the ruling party, doesn't that give the majority the right to complain?

71. lawsy, Lawsy /Spill the beans , who is this thing
you call a labour counsilor?

' In the 2004 local elections in Birmingham, party activists were accused of taking bundles of votes to ballot stations in black bags.' The report misses an important point. These were Labour Party activists, some of them candidates, who claimed preventing them from doing this was 'anti-democratic'. Draw your own conclusions.
There are other opportunities for fraud in the voting system which something should be done about.
I live near Stirling University. The University automatically registers all its students with the Registrar. Students then get two votes - one at home and one in Stirling. Why? - no-one else has two votes.
Also, as most elections are held when the students are away home for the hols there are lots of Elector's Poll cards lying about for anyone to take along to a polling station and use to claim a vote.
Postal votes, as reported above, are an invitation to fraud.
And why do we have a number on our 'secret' voting slips, carefully recorded against our names when we vote? I've queried this on several occasions and never had a satisfactory explanation.
As for the excuses given for not adopting the security methods used in England ... does anyone accept them?
Why do I feel we are sleepwalking into a Police state?

John 1 #78. The reason I was given for the cross reference of the Electoral Roll Number on the Counterfoil of the Ballot Paper which has the same number as this printed on the back is two-fold. One is so that when the votes are tallied for each Polling District these should agree in number to the first un-issued number on the counterfoil. If lower then Ballot Papers are missing, if higher then there is the possibility of forged papers having been put in the Ballot Box. Only when the total number of votes counted tallies with the number issued will the second stage occur of splitting out the votes according to the Party voted for. Each Paper must also have an Official Mark stamped on it as it is issued. This is either embossed or is perforated onto the paper, no mark, no valid vote, again to prevent someone taking in a number of forged papers and putting them in the Ballot Box. This of course is in a manual pen and paper system, electronic voting may well use different methodologies.

The second reason is that, should it be necessary, those with the requisite authority could cross-match a Ballot Paper in a particular Election to the Electoral Roll then in use and discover how someone voted. I would assume this would only be available to the Returning Officer if there was an objection to a Result and it was thought that some irregularity had occurred or I assume to Special Branch and other Security Services . Even a Local Councillor or MP would not be able to discover this as far as I am aware, but I stand to be corrected.

Today april 22nd Scotland has the best government MONEY CAN BUY.

#30 Pete39.

I believe it was Stalin who said:

"It's not the people, who count in an election, it's the people who do counting".

Is that why the Chancellor of the Exchequer recently went to the US to see Big Dubbya? To get first hand the big picture on electoral fraud. Maybe that's why new labour big whigs keep going going across thepod for "private talks"!!!

re #79

But the government can. And the problem arises when a political party by using democracy gets into power and then wants to identify people who voted for a party that the other party didn't like. Ballot papers and counterfoils have to be stored for, i believe 50 years. Special branch or the security services could be hijacked by a nasty gvernment (if they haven't been hijacked already) and the past ballot papers and counterfoils could then be examined and a knock at the door in te middle of the night could come to some poor unsuspecting green party voter, maybe. You might scoff, but with the computor software we have available, voters and how they voted is easy to find out if a government wanted to. BTW, i understand this writing of polling numbers on counterfoils by Presiding Officers and Poll Clerks started in the Thatcher years.

Re # 78. You cannot use a polling card to claim a vote. When you present yourself, you must state your full name and address to the Presiding Officer who will then cross out your name on the list of electors, tear off a ballot paper, market with the seal (usually a punch), write your poll number on the counterfoil, fold the paper once in half and then issue it to you. He/she (or the poll clerk) must not issue with a ballot paper merely when you produce the card. You must state your name, or the Presiding Officer of the polling place (polling station in England) will ask you "Are you the person whose name is ..... as detailed on the Registered of Electors for this Polling District?" If you say 'Yes', he will issue with a ballot paper unless one has already been issued in your name to someone else. If this is the case, he may issue with a (usually) pink ballot paper which yu can vote on,but this cannot be placed in the ballot box. It must be handed to the Presiding Officer who will then place it in a separate envelope and it will go to the Electoral Registration Office for verification as a "Tendered Vote" It won't be counted in the main count.

Re #78

You should not get two votes. You are only entitled to have one vote and that is the place where you are registered as a voter. Strictly speaking, if you are registered as a voter in your university town, you should advise the electoral registration officer of the mistake. Voters are registered once a year and the person who is he "head" of the household should complete the form. If you have left home to go to university, it is the legal requirement for the person completing the annual form not t include yourname. Generally, forms are sent out in October, basically when students at university away from domicile would not be at home so should not be included on the form unless they want a postal vote. If that is the case, your university was at fault for placing you on the voters register at stirling.

#31--Cadgers---i suspect the famed "algore" has been advising the fine folks of Scotland on how to properly participate in election fraud. he tried in 2000, but didn't succeed..............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16bPATQnAU4

Alternative Party Political Broadcast
on behalf of the Lying Labour Party

I see the paper managed to put a typical slant onto the issue : "Of claims that SNP activists were handling ballot papers..." worded in such a way that it implies that there have been allegations and that the labour party are above reproach.

Of course, it would never have been worded "Of claims that LABOUR activists were handling ballot papers..."

We should investigate every single postal paper in any seats where their number exceeds a certain percentage as a safe guard.What we should decide by all party consent is what percentage is deemed acceptable and unlikely to affect the result.or do we examine every marginal result.
This is almost designed to be declared void, if as expected LABOUR GET STUFFED .
I for one will be most suspicious if the results do not refelect the clear SNP lead recorded in every opinion poll and I would definitely examine Strathclyde results with a very fine toothcomb. They have a track record of secrecy and strange goings on the length of the Clyde !

I for one will not be voting as i find it shocking that the polish can vote in our country,i am sick and tired of hearing what they are allowed to get and the vast majority of them send their money back home,the reason i know this is i worked with them and i have now got another job that don`t have polish or any other EU country working for them , it`s our country why should they be allowed to vote here.

If electronic voting in Scotland would be on overload by being required to verify signatures and birth dates, why not delay electronic voting until you can do it properly.

20. Roy / 8:38am 22 Apr 2007

It'll be alright on the night. There are election monitors coming in from Nigeria and Florida to make sure everything is above board.

Nah mate they are coming her to watch how the union thugs and the New Slaver party.sorry Labour party do it, they have been doing it for generations and it has take this long for the public to cotton on to them, We got to have checks and good one and honest people doing the checks too, Yes there are some just not one who are labour they all need some hard Labour.

92#

Are you mad? Because the Poles have a vote you're seriously going to let your two votes just go.
You'll get the government you deserve then and have to shut up about it because you "made a protest".
I've news for you, no one will notice your pathetic protest but its a gift to the Socialist parties busy bribing migrant workers and the "Muslim Community" for perks and concessions to make life in Scotland nicer for them.

A council Candidate will require at least 1000 votes to get elected. The Candidate might need to bribe 200 voters. At £20 a shot,that would cost £4000. How many people would spend £4000 on the off-chance of being elected ? For larger electorates, the cost increases tremendously. What a load of balderdash the story is. Just another opportunity to let the pigmy thinkers vent their spleen and spite at Labour.