Tamper-proof ballot papers 'can halt postal vote fraud'
After last week's call by the Electoral Commission to halt plans for
all-postal voting for future elections, a young commercial printing executive from Glasgow thinks he has come
up with an answer. Tommy Connell, 28, the founder and managing director of the commercial print company InfoSafe,
has developed a revolutionary postal ballot paper, with a patented tamper-proof adhesive strip that conceals each
elector's vote and personal details.
The papers each have a perforated edge that allows polling staff easily to tear off the cover strip to reveal
the vote on each of the ballot papers. The adhesive strip remains tamper-proof, helping to cut out the problem of
vote-rigging. In its report, the commission called for a raft of reforms to ensure "continued public confidence in
UK elections", after a number of key political figures claimed the security of the current postal voting system was
flawed, with susceptibility to fraud and widespread vote-rigging.
InfoSafe, of Hillington, has submitted the patented papers to the commission and hopes they will be used in future
elections. Connell said: "The papers have been designed to be 100 per cent tamper-proof, so that once a vote has been
cast and sealed over, no one can access and change details of the vote without damaging the paper and making the ballot
void. "This is a proven method that we are already employing in other sectors and is a technology that would translate
easily to create a more secure postal ballot system."
More than 6.5m people were estimated by the commission to have voted by post in this month's elections, almost
quadruple the number of postal ballots used in 2001.
This article is by David Black, Deputy Business Editor of The Scotsman.
It first appeared in The Scotsman
on 23rd May 2005 (link)
Last update 24th May 2005 - maintained by G Barrie