| SCOTS IN LONDON - Extra Safeguards for Elections in Scotland |
| Written by Scotland Office | |
| Monday, 04 February 2008 | |
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New laws to tackle the threat of voting fraud came a step closer today when the House of Commons agreed two new measures aimed at increasing the security of postal ballots. The new legislation will mean that absent or postal voters will now have to provide their date of birth in addition to their signature when applying for a postal vote and then again when they come to cast their votes. Returning Officers will then be able to check a proportion of these against examples previously provided.The measures were introduced in England and Wales intime for last year’s local elections and are now being extended to Scotland, where they will apply both in UK Parliament elections held in Scotland and elections to the Scottish Parliament. Scotland Office Minister David Cairns said: “Thankfully,we’ve seen no evidence of electoral fraud in Scotland in recent years,but we cannot afford to be complacent. We fully recognise the need forsafeguards against any attempt to vote fraudulently and that’s why weare now introducing, for Scotland, those measures that have beensuccessful in tackling fraud south of the Border. "Postal votingis proving to be very popular with many people so it is vital that itis not abused in any way. These new measures strike a balancedapproach between making postal voting easy and providing extrasafeguards.”
1. The Commons DelegatedLegislation Committee and the House of Lords are today debating theRepresentation of the People (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2008and the Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) (Amendment) Order 2008
Media contact:
News Release: SS1223 |
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