|
> Home
> News cuttings >
Dismay over 'post only' election in Yorkshire
Yorkshire Post - 22 January
2004
by Brendan Carlin Political Editor and Chris Benfield
Millions of Yorkshire electors will have to cast their vote
by post after the Government decided to shelve the time-honoured ballot
box and polling station in an unprecedented voting experiment.
In a surprise move, Constitutional Affairs Minister Chris
Leslie yesterday announced that this June's region-wide European Parliament
elections and every local council poll right across Yorkshire and the
Humber region would be postal-only ballots.
The move - which could add millions of pounds to the cost
of running the elections - means that as well as choosing who represents
Yorkshire in Europe by mail, electors will also have to use the post to
decide who runs Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford where all the council seats
are up for grabs.
The local and European elections are this year both scheduled
for June 10 but as part of the biggest all-postal vote experiment ever
tried, electors will have had to mail their vote in by that day or drop
the envelope into a collection centre by close-of-poll.
Shipley MP Mr Leslie said the move was designed to boost turn-out
and make voting easier.
It had already been announced for the East Midlands and the North-East,
but will now also include Yorkshire and the North-West.
However the move was last night mired in controversy after
it emerged that the independent Electoral Commission had specifically
not recommended an all-postal pilot in Yorkshire because of a "distinct
preference" by council returning officers to stick to conventional
ballot boxes and polling stations for this year.
The Tories said that the surprise move to include Yorkshire
and the North-West was a "panic move" amid signs of lack of
interest in the region-wide referendums on John Prescott's dream of creating
mini-parliaments in Yorkshire, the North-East and the North-West. They
will be mail-only ballots.
Tory regions spokesman David Curry said the change to all-postal
ballots was a clear bid to "house-train" the Yorkshire and North-West
electorate ahead of October's assembly poll.
Mr Prescott was "determined to do whatever he could"
to get the assembly plan through, said Mr Curry, MP for Skipton and Ripon.
Only last week an opinion poll showed the Deputy Prime Minister
and Hull East MP faced fiercest opposition in his own Yorkshire region
and was potentially on course to lose the referendums in all three Northern
regions.
Leeds city council chief executive Paul Rogerson - who doubles as returning
officer - also signalled that the move was unwelcome.
"There can be no doubt that the announced move to an
all-postal ballot will represent a considerable logistical challenge that
had certainly not been sought," he said.
However, Mr Rogerson insisted that if the necessary funding
was provided he was confident "that returning officers across the
region will make sure that the arrangements will be convenient to voters
and fully understood by them".
Mr Leslie insisted yesterday's announcement was nothing to
do with the forthcoming regional assembly referendums.
And he suggested that the "lukewarm enthusiasm"
from election returning officers in this region reflected the views of
local councillors - not the judgement of the council officers themselves.
He also told the Yorkshire Post that the traditional ballot
box and polling station would still be used for the next General Election
and signalled that the postal-only experiment, would be revised if it
failed to work properly this June.
Last year a handful of local authorities were given the chance
to hold all-postal elections in May as part of a pilot project which saw
a massive increase in turn-out. In Doncaster nearly 50 per cent of voters
took part - nearly doubling the year before's turn out. In Doncaster turn
out rose from 28 per cent to 47 per cent. Similar successes were also
seen in Chesterfield and Rotherham
There were however concerns among some voters that postal
voting did not assure the secrecy of their vote or protect enough against
fraud and there was also a cost increase.
In Doncaster the cost rose to £ 156,000 from £ 140,000 - if
the election had been conducted by the traditional ballot box.
Yorkshire Tory Euro-MP Tim Kirkhope, who will be a candidate
on June 10, last night said the experiment should be ditched if there
was a chance of more fraud or manipulation. He also said that "pensioners,
disability and other interested groups should be fully consulted"
before the Government gave the final go-ahead.
Mr Leslie said that fraud could also take place in conventional
ballots and signalled that the problem was under control. The Electoral
Commission reckons that compared to the £ 1 per voter cost of conventional
elections, all-postal votes can cost between £ 1.42 and £
5.03 per voter - potentially adding millions of pound overall to the cost
of this year's twin elections.
Mr Leslie also last night hinted that the extra cost would
be at the lower end of that range and that central government - not councils
- would bear the increase.
© Yorkshire Post
|
previous page