New Clause 4 Extra provision for collection of postal votes
Electoral Administration Bill
12:30 pm
Eleanor Laing (Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Scotland; Epping Forest, Conservative)
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
The new clause relates to the collection of postal votes. There has been great concern since the last general election about the opportunities available for fraud in connection with postal voting. We all see the point of postal voting—not universal postal voting but postal voting in certain circumstances—as it allows people who would not otherwise be able to do so to cast their vote. Therefore we want it to work properly. However, there have been many instances that ring alarm bells about the delivery of postal votes, and of postal votes going missing.
If the new clause were accepted, people who had a postal vote could go in person and deliver their postal vote, thereby ensuring that it was in the right box. The vote would not have to be cast on polling day but could be done before polling day, and the voter would not be in any doubt that it had arrived at the right place, by the right time.