With the Trump mantra, that people are stealing elections. I can say I have seen it but not on the scale trump says. If someone beats another candidate by 7 votes is easy to lose them? Hell yes! Can someone make millions of votes disappear like Trump says? Well, I am not sure about that.
But that has raised a couple of gentlemen in Wigan to talk in a pub - when they were open - about the issue. One gentleman said to the other that they voted via the post so it was ok. The other agreed they did the same. Then one of them said the funny thing is I got a letter out of the blue in August saying I need to update my details at the Town Hall. The other said they had the same. Both gentlemen were staunch anti-Labour voters and apparently it is well known in their ward. One of them had called the Town Hall and they were told their ballot paper in the previous election had been rejected and the letter they had received months later was saying they needed to update their signatures at the Town Hall. He was outraged that why was he not told during the election and he could have rectified it? The response we do not need to tell you in the election period.
The other gentleman said he too had had one of these letters but thought nothing of it. They spoke with their Cllr and asked if this was correct. That said Cllr knowing how I am a strong supporter of democracy said they would find out. When I heard about this I was shocked as surely they would need to write to them in the election period, so long as there was enough time, and let the wrong be rectified.
I checked with Wigan Town Hall and they said no they do not need to tell people that their vote has not been counted until after the election, I checked with the Electoral Commission and they confirmed the town hall is correct.
My issue with this is I have learnt via a source in the Town Hall that there are hundreds of postal votes rejected each yr from wards and these people never know or allowed to get a new vote in if their first one has been rejected. They are therefore excluded from participating in the democracy that we live by in this country,
I have asked under the FOI to Wigan Town Hall how many postal ballots papers are rejected each year at the local elections to confirm if it is true that hundreds are rejected from wards each year? Guess what their response is? We are not telling you! They try and claim that the returning officer runs the elections in a personal capacity -which is not true. A returning officer is a statutory role that is appointed to oversee the elections by the Council and they then use Wigan Council to run the administration of the election. The same person does the roles of returning officer and Chief Executive and given the Steve Jones case, you would have thought that Wigan Council would have learnt this rule when they tried to argue this and the judge gave their thoughts and views on this. So with Wigan Council hiding, the figures of rejected postal votes, people should worry if their vote is even counted.
What I would strongly say is if anyone has had a letter out of the blue asking them to update their details I would say this would indicate they have rejected your vote and I would update your details at the Town Hall if you cannot vote in person.
It seems that Wigan Council and Labour will try and do anything to win and the only way to know if your vote is in the ballot box is if you go in person.
The Government is redoing a bill for elections and making it mandatory that you will have to show ID in 2023 elections to be able to vote. What they have not said is how they will stop any mass fraud that happens with postal votes, which is where evidence suggests that any fraud is done.
