They had to do something. The local government minister, Nick Raynsford, has announced that an additional £10m will be spent on preventing fraudulent postal voting. How? Returning officers dealing with postal votes will have more administrative back-up, and election officials will be advised on how to spot and tackle fraud. Mr Raynsford also pointed out that offenders can be jailed for up to two years. We're still waiting to find out whether criminal charges will be brought against the six Labour councillors condemned yesterday.
But will that be enough? It certainly falls short of the individual voter registration recommended by the Electoral Commission's report. Instead of a single form for each household, voters would have to register individually.
Intriguingly, as US blogger Josef A K pointed out on this blog yesterday, the election of the Washington state governor was similarly blighted by accusations of fraud. The Democrat won by 129 votes, and his Republican challenger is suing. Can we learn anything from the American experience of voting fraud?
