by Martin Beckford and Cameron Roy, Daily Mail
The elections watchdog has been urged to investigate after the country’s biggest town hall admitted the full scale of illegal ‘family voting’.
Birmingham City Council revealed staff witnessed attempts to breach the secret ballot at 50 polling stations in May’s local elections.
A list of incidents obtained by the Daily Mail showed presiding officers repeatedly had to tell voters it is against the law to enter a booth with someone else and tell them which candidate to pick – and received abuse in return.
In the city’s Jewellery Quarter, voters ‘became aggressive’ with an officer after being told not to talk to each other in polling booths.
A man in Balsall Heath was said to be ‘trying continuously’ to ‘influence voters’ – and when stopped he accused officials of fraud.
The presiding officer said he had been ‘so stressed and under pressure’ from the man, while another family ‘was rude’. In another part of the inner-city area, a man was witnessed trying to ‘influence voting’ through ‘Islamic gestures, blinking eyes, hand signals’.
A woman nearby ‘was aggressive’ when told not to talk or show her vote.
Elsewhere a father was seen holding ‘all the poll cards’ for his relatives and ‘was advising’ each one on how to vote’. The presiding officer in Garretts Green told them to go into separate booths but conceded: ‘It was clear that votes were being influenced.’
Read also: As the elections watchdog is urged to investigate illegal ‘family voting’… It saddens me to say it, but the only way we can safeguard our precious democracy is to have police officers at every polling station by Matt Goodwin, Daily Mail