GETTY Today Paul Nuttall is publishing a parliamentary paper on postal voting

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Elections were much more open to abuse as voting was often a very public display with eligible voters showing raised hands to signify their chosen candidate. Bribes and intimidation were commonplace, especially amongst financially vulnerable voters. Employers and landlords would often attend the vote, or send a representative on their behalf to ensure that their workers or tenants voted for their approved candidate. Voters refusing to be coerced could face unemployment or eviction.

From 1872, until the passing of the Representation of the People Act 1918, voting was only in person and in secret; however, following the First World War, it was decided that those serving in the armed forces were prevented “by reason of the nature of their occupation…from voting at a poll” and allowed to cast an absent ballot. Entitlement to an absent ballot for those not serving with the armed forces was not granted until the Representation of the People Act 1948. The new Act expanded the right to an absent vote for those who genuinely could not attend their polling station, either through physical incapacity, or from those who would need to travel by air or sea, due to the nature of their occupation.

GETTY People who opt to vote by post have already started to receive their ballots ahead of next month

Further extensions were made for voters who were otherwise genuinely absent under the Representation of the People Act 1985, but it was not until 2000, under Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, that application for postal voting was made available “on demand”. And it is that “on demand” system of postal voting which is open to widespread misuse and even corruption, and is in urgent need of reform. Today I am publishing a parliamentary paper highlighting numerous examples of where postal voting has been used illicitly. In it, I call for an urgent amendment of the Representation of the People Act 2000 by scrapping that inclusion of postal voting “on demand”. People choosing to vote via post rather than polling station have already started to receive their postal voting ballots for next month’s plethora of elections. In my paper, published by the UKIP Parliamentary Resource Unit, I point to recent postal voting anomalies in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Wythenshawe and Sale East, Peterborough, Burnley, Blackburn and Birmingham, as examples of how postal voting on demand has perverted the democratic process.

GETTY Nuttall wants to scrap postal voting ‘on demand’ and force voters to go to the polls in real life

Evidence suggests that many postal voters complete and return their voting cards within 24 hours of receiving them – which is weeks before the actual election date and before they have had any chance to hear from all competing candidates. As the saying goes, a week is a long time in politics, so a lot can happen before election day and therefore public opinion can often change. But mass, early postal voting doesn’t allow those voters to change their minds. And all the evidence suggests that those earlier examples are just the tip of the iceberg. I felt I had to write this paper following what I witnessed at the Oldham West and Royton by election where boxes containing postal votes were almost unanimously in support of one particular party. I knew then that something was rotten in our system. I believe postal voting needs to return to its origins – allowing those who are genuinely infirm and housebound, or perhaps abroad serving in the armed forces, to have their say at the ballot box. What we have the moment, thanks to the Labour Party for whom it serves best, is a system where anyone can demand to be allowed a postal vote rather than visit a polling station. This means that some households can have all their votes decided by one person, regardless of an individual’s own personal political persuasions.

GETTY Paul Nuttall is UKIP Deputy Leader, and MEP for the North West