To wonder what's stopping them tampering with the postal votes

[nobeans]

By setting post boxes in key constituencies on fire or otherwise delaying the post collection?

No need to be quite so harsh.
You can also nominate someone to drop off your postal vote at a polling station on the 4th. thanks that's handy to know. How do I do that?

Because they don't have postal votes. I remember all the hanging chad business

But “ they” would have to pour water into every post box for every collection for weeks to get every vote.. someone would notice dripping post boxes ..

The person dropping off has to be closely related to you, or a carer. And they have to complete the form in the polling station.

So you may as well go yourself.

Or just post your vote and stop being so paranoid.

It's like pencilgate. Bonkers.

Oh I thought it was a week window

Aah, are you from the US? That explains it. Postal votes here are put in the normal post boxes, there are no dedicated boxes for ballot papers here. So the postal votes could be put into any post box in the country. Indeed, people tend to use postal votes only if they will he away from home on election night. So what you are suggesting would be impossible with our system.

No. I'm in the UK.

What would be the point? If this was expected to be a close election then it might be worth it… but it’s expected to be a landslide. A few postal votes are not going to swing it and the election is highly unlikely to hinge on a few marginal constituencies.

The 2000 presidential election and the hanging chads thing happened in an election that hinged on a few hundred votes in one state. This general election is not going to be that. Why on earth would anyone risk prison to maybe shift the dial by handful of votes that might be in a postbox in an election where one party has a 20 point lead?

@Takoneko I thought it wad a close thing. I don't really follow the national picture

Now that I’ve realised you are talking about the US presidential election my answer is completely different. Postal votes are likely to skew blue and the race is likely to be close.

Trump supporters have shown utter contempt for the democratic process and I would not be in the least bit surprised to see them targeting postal votes and carrying out electoral sabotage.

They stormed congress to try and stop the peaceful transfer of power, setting fire to a few postboxes would be nothing to them.

I'm not. I'm talking about the UK one!

In that case there would be no point. Postal votes don’t skew that differently to in-person here.

This is also not shaping up to be a close election. Labour are 20 points ahead, reform have split the vote on the right and the tory strategy looks like they scrambling to try to hold onto previously solid seats with what would normally be unassailable majorities.

https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/homepage.html

The poor postal service could be an issue in some areas.

But how would "they" know that the post box they were targeting had more votes for the other party than for themselves?

I'm going to vote for whichever political party promises to add teaching critical thinking in schools. Posts like this prove how badly needed it is.

Can someone translate please...

I’ve always received my postal votes at least a week before the election day. Perhaps hand it in at a post office if you are worried it might not be collected from a quiet post box.

Agree - OPs bums oot the windae

The conservatives are heading towards at the least a 1997 style huge defeat, if not total electoral oblivion. Even if somebody flooded every post box in your constituency it wouldn't matter. Particularly since people will have opted for a postal vote because they were away from home. Also the right wing vote is split between the Tories and Reform, so its unclear who ",they" would be.

Postal voters are more likely to be old and/or rural: demographics that tilt Tory. So the Tories would be mad to do this.

Labour are almost certain to win a significant majority. The huge risk that they'd take if any of their operatives were caught sabotaging postal votes in a handful of marginal constituencies would be wildly disproportionate to the potential gain.

I guess the Lib Dems could do it in a Tory / Lib Dem marginal but they don't seem the type to me.

They will know if supporters of their party use postal votes more or will know the areas they live in so they can target the other onrs

I’ve hand delivered mine to the address on the postal vote (Town Hall in my case) when I was concerned that the post might be delayed.

It could well be , I don’t actually know! I was just imagining the postie opening the box and water flooding out…

That, to be fair, is actually true.

In a super-marginal every single door will be knocked on multiple times by each party: possibly with the exception of specific council estates which the Tories think are a total lost cause/vice versa for affluent elderly villages which Labour don't think are worth the effort.

People will be asked about voting intentions and about whether they're going to vote in person or by post. I reckon that each party will have a pretty good sense of which way the postal vote in each ward will swing. So it's not completely unthinkable.

But the chances of torching a post box in the run up to polling day and getting away with it are very low, given the amount of CCTV in this country. And the PR implications of getting caught would be catastrophic.

If you're worried OP then just do what I do with cards in the run up to Christmas, on the advice of a postal worker, and post your ballot inside a post office.

Sorry. I meant you sounded unhinged and deluded and like you’d been reading the National Enquirer since 1998 whilst listening to GB News and micro dosing mushrooms.

Just hand your sealed postal vote to anyone who is going to vote at your polling station. Any individual may hand in up to 5 postal votes, except candidates on the ballot, who may only hand in a vote of someone within their household.

Every day? Target the post boxes every day?

Why not just admit/accept that you’ve had a bit of a mad moment and driven yourself to think som outlandish thing, which with hindsight is not at all plausible and nothing to worry about. Then move on with your thoughts.