R v. M & Others Kings Lynn Crown Court
M was charged with others for manipulating the electoral process, in particular, the postal voting system in an attempt to inflate the number of votes during local council elections. It was alleged defendants improperly arranged for postal ballot papers to be sent to addresses other than the voter's home address, where they would then be endorsed with crosses against the names of preferred candidates. Following the election, some complaints were made to the returning office that voters had been unable to cast their votes at the polling station because they had been told on election day that they had already cast their vote by post. The Cambridgeshire Police commenced an investigation and interviewed a large number of voters as well as from staff involved in processing the electoral documentation.
The police investigation revealed that there were similarities in a significant number of applications. In particular, the addresses, and the handwriting on the postal application forms appeared to be very similar, even to the untrained eye. On some occasions when the police visited the voter's address, it became apparent to them that their political colours were opposed to the vote that had been cast.
An unusual feature, in this case, was that the police obtained a particular production order from the Peterborough Crown Court to secure a significant volume of documentation. The documents included poll cards, applications to vote by post, application to vote by proxy and declaration of identity. These items of evidence were subject to a scientific forensic examination.
At the conclusion of the police investigation the defendants were charged with matters of conspiracy to defraud, forgery and counterfeiting, contrary to the Forgery and counterfeiting act 1981 and the defendant pursued his case to trial.
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