“…voter fraud through postal voting is not a huge problem, “
It’s bigger than you think, Mikey, and certainly bigger than the authorities will care to admit. It is prevalent in certain communities but I won’t emphasise which particular communities because it doesn’t matter.
“…election officials and police will be given new powers to tackle intimidation of voters by activists, who will also be banned from collecting postal votes for submission “
There are already measures in place to prevent both postal voting fraud and intimidation, etc. at polling booths. The problem is that the authorities refuse to use such powers. In the Lutfur Rahman affair in the Tower Hamlets mayoral election the police refused to investigate widespread voting fraud properly. They took a cursory glance and decided no offences had been committed despite being presented with shedloads of evidence from a group of local voters. They effectively had to launch a private prosecution (in fact elicit a writ from the "Election Court") at considerable financial risk to themselves. The court (the judgement of which I’ve pointed to many times on AB) found otherwise. It determined that intimidation, postal voting fraud, “treating” and religious pressure took place on a staggering scale (considering the size of the electorate). The poll was declared void, Mr Rahman was thrown out of office and barred from standing for five years.
I believe that the extension of postal voting to an “on demand” facility was a grave mistake and had undoubtedly led to the type of fraud seen in Tower Hamlets. There is no need for such a facility to be available to all and it should be restricted to those working away, those who are too ill to get to the polling station. Proof of the need should be required and renewed at least every five years.