Yesterday’s local and European elections were shrouded in
controversy across the country as the postal vote system was
lambasted from all sides and arrests carried out over alleged
abuse. In Oxford, many students took advantage of postal votes to
enable them to vote in their home local elections as well as the
Oxford ones, especially students from London who wanted to take
part in elections for the Mayor of London and the General London
Assembly. David Adams, who lives in Richmond, told Cherwell, “I
wanted to vote for Ken Livingstone because the Mayor of London
will represent me for several years after I’ve left Oxford,
and so postal voting saved me trekking back home yesterday.” While Oxford seemed to avoid problems with malpractice and
delivery, there were smaller cases of confusion. Some students
were unaware that it was illegal to vote in the European
Elections twice. The confusion seems to have risen because both
local and European elections were held on the same day, and
students assumed that the rules were the same for both, despite
posters at the polling stations warning of the illegality of
voting twice in the latter. A spokeswoman for the Electoral
Services Department said that if individuals were found to have
voted twice, they would be reported to the police and prosecuted. Hiren Naik complained that “it was all far too confusing.
I only realised I was allowed to vote on the ballot paper for the
local elections but not the one for the European elections when I
got to the voting booth. I’m sure some students must have
mistakenly voted twice.” In Lancashire, police are questioning 60 people about 170
proxy vote applications while Greater Manchester Police are
probing malpractice claims. Elsewhere, problems with printing and
postal systems left voters without sufficient time to return
ballots and so emergency polling stations were set up in areas
including Bolton. Postal ballots were intended to boost turnout,
and early indications suggest that they may have done so by as
much as 25% in some parts of the country.ARCHIVE: 6th week TT 2004
Illegal opportunities for student voters
