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?

Thank you! I didn't realise I could get free ID can it be used as normal ID?

Absentee/postal voting is also used for armed forces personnel posted abroad.

No, it is valid for voting only, hence the name. You need your NI number and, I think, some proof of address. You can apply online. If you've lost a passport or driving licence you do need to let the Passport Office or DVLA know.

Stop listening to Trump and his cronies.

You also need to upload a photo.

Ok thank you! Thanks to all the helpful people here who have helped me feel like my vote is definitely going to get counted

To make an analogy with the national lottery, you have to be in it to win it. Anyone who is struggling to get registered and get valid ID should contact their local council's electoral office to be signposted to services which can help them or Citizen's Advice Bureau.

Lost ID documents should always be notified, even if you can't afford or just don't want to replace them, because they can be used in identity theft.

A friend does electoral counting - there is no way to tamper with the votes. You need to stop reading conspiracy theories on line. This is not the US with its use of machines… or sad loser bent presidents

All that you ever wanted to know (and more😁) about how ballot papers are dealt with (including postal votes) are on this thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/general-election-2024/5080626-polling-staff?page=2&reply=135503043

Well, even if the window is only a week, you'd have to pour water into every post box in the constituency every day for a week. It would require mass co ordination and lots of people prepared to break the law to do it.

You really don't have anything to worry about.

Are you from somewhere this is a regular occurence?

I have a postal vote, and one time I had a letter saying that my signature on the vote didn’t resemble the one they had on file. So I had no vote. I did wonder about that, as my signature is always the same.

OP there are over 115,000 postboxes in the UK according to Google, the vote usually arrives over a week before so people will be posting them over several different days, there won't be post boxes brimming with votes, any plot to scupper postal votes would have to be sophisticated and complex and likely couldn't happen unnoticed.

I will sending mine the day I have it because Royal Mail is shockingly shit around here and it'll likely take a few days to arrive, I worry about incompetence, not malice.

I just don’t understand why you went straight to post boxes being set on fire to stop votes. If you’re worried about your post vote, I’d have thought you’d think of delayed post, or it getting lost by Royal Mail; or a postal worker opening them then getting rid,. You know, normal things which happen with mail; post gets lost, it gets delayed, post office staff sometimes delivery birthday cards with the money missing because it’s been opened.

Thise would be slightly understandable worries. The chances of them happening is teeny teeny tiny, especially the idea of workers opening them and hiding them, but I could at least understand why you’d think it and maybe ask Royal Mail workers for an insight. But you went to “post boxes set on fire.”

It’s a very odd thing to be concerned about. And makes absolutely no sense. They’ve have to watch what sort of people use each post box to make a guess at the votes in if, and they’d have to set each one on fire every day, or poor water in multiple times a day for before each collection time on the box. It just makes absolutely no sense. Why would the have a process to guard against this? It literally doesn’t happen.

Do you suffer from anxiety?

Thank you!!!! Legend

Thanks for the kick up the bum ill phone them today

I haven't read conspiracy theories I just wondered how they keep them safe

I'm glad they tell you - again thanks for sharing this

Is this the first time you’ve experienced a general election? You might feel it’s fraught but most people don’t feel that strongly about it to destroy the contents of a letter box

It was an example. I was trying to think of things people might do to sabotage the postal vote and all I could thing of was damaging the votes in the post box. I work in a role where I am paid to find holes and flaws in systems and was curious how this one worked. I'm not fretting and anxious about it, just curious.

Sorry, knee jerk response after too much time on TwiX! Really need to keep away from the Trump related threads…

They have really strict protocols in the UK and my poor friend spends weeks verifying the signatures before locking away the actual vote envelopes (unopened at that stage). I appreciate this system become harder and slower to manage as the population grows or the voting turnout is high, but I can’t see many more reliable and safe ways to process votes.

Why bother, you no idea which postbox has a vote in...you have to set on fire every single box for weeks on end. Lots of other post be destroyed and a postal vote may not be in the box.

Like to know who they are

All ballot papers are individually numbered. In the polling station this number is recorded against the voter id number when the paper is issued to the voter.

So not strictly a secret poll as this enables investigation in the case of suspected fraud. Or in your scenario if a postbox went on fire.

Otherwise this 'corresponding number list' is securely stored for a number of years before being disposed of.

Having worked in election roles for many years I can assure that the system works very well and electoral fraud is rare and unsuccessful.