Following last Thursday’s by-election, in which the Green Party’s Hannah Spencer won a seat in parliament by a margin of more than 4,000, accusations have been made of ‘family voting’ at polling stations.
Banned through the Ballot Secrecy Act 2023, ‘family voting’ refers to cases in which a person is in or near a polling booth when someone else is casting a vote. The idea is to prevent an individual’s decision being influenced by a third party.
After last week’s Green Party by-election result, both Reform leader Nigel Farage and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have been amongst the prominent voices suggesting this practice was observed, in significant numbers, during the Gorton and Denton by-election. Their respective parties finished second and third in the results, with Labour losing a 13,000 majority.
Accusations are largely based comments by John Ault, Director of the group Democracy Volunteers, who said members of his organisation saw evidence of family voting at 15 of 22 polling stations, noting 32 suspected cases in total. Across the electorate, this could have impacted 12 per cent of the vote.
Greater Manchester Police has since confirmed that it is reviewing the reports, and Green Party chief Zack Polanski has said he will back any probe into the allegations. Meanwhile, Manchester City Council issued statement, outlining that concerns were not raised prior to polling stations closing and the acting returning officer for the vote confirmed staff are trained to monitor ‘undue influence on voters’.
‘No such issues have been reported today,’ the authority added.
Image: Element5 Digital / Unsplash
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