Police alert on election fraud« Thread Started on Apr 24, 2007, 11:48pm » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------With just 11 days to go, a Scotland on Sunday investigation has revealed concern at the highest level that key seats could be won by fraudulent postal votes. read at source> http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=617522007EDDIE BARNES, RICHARD ELIAS AND ALASTAIR GRAYTHE Holyrood election has been left wide open to fraud on a potentially massive scale after ministers scrapped checks designed to prevent abuse of postal votes. With just 11 days to go, a Scotland on Sunday investigation has revealed concern at the highest level that key seats could be won by fraudulent postal votes, and that there are already widespread claims of vote-buying by corrupt party activists. Despite an unprecedented 433,000 postal vote applications, our inquiry has established that: • Computer checks on ballot signatures will be used in England, but not north of the Border; • Date of birth checks on the same papers will happen south of the Border, but not in Scotland; • The Electoral Reform Society in Scotland is "hugely concerned" about the scope for fraud; • Allegations are circulating that votes are already being bought for as little as £20; • Police have taken the unprecedented step of issuing every officer with a booklet on how to spot voting crimes.