Investigation of voting fraud

This is from 10 days ago.

I wonder if anything will come of this. Would I be surprised if it didn't? No.

Police Probe Glasgow Voter Fraud Allegations

Election officials are asked to secure suspect ballot papers after claims of electoral fraud in Scotland's biggest city.

 

Sky News,

19 Sepetember, 2014

Police are investigating allegations of voter fraud in the Scottish referendum in Glasgow, election officials have confirmed

Colin Edgar from Glasgow City Council told Sky's Kay Burley police were called in after evidence emerged of 10 possible incidents of electoral fraud in the city.

The allegations appear to centre on attempts at personation at some polling stations.

Mr Edgar said: "We've had a number of suggestions over the course of the day that people have turned up at the polling station to vote and they appear to have voted already.

"This is called personation if it turns out to be what it actually is.

"So what's happening tonight is we know which boxes those votes went into and we know the numbers on the votes, so the police have asked us to identify those votes, to take them away, keep them for evidence and hand them to them."

A suspect ballot paper in a police evidence bag at the Glasgow count

Mr Edgar said presiding officers had alerted officials to incidents of possible electoral fraud.

"Somebody turned up to vote, they gave their name, the presiding officer went to cross off their name on their list of voters to give them a ballot paper and found that their name had already been crossed off and a ballot paper already issued to somebody who apparently had the same name."

He said the ballot papers would be traced and kept secure overnight before being passed to Police Scotland.

Staff at the count will search for them using blue gloves to avoid contaminating the evidence with fingerprints.

The votes would remain part of the count until police prove fraud has taken place, a Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said.

The real voter is given a special vote which is not included in the count until the allegations are proven, she said.

Mr Edgar said fraud could have been committed because there is no requirement for voters to prove their ID at polling stations in UK elections.

Staff at the count will use gloves to search for suspect ballot papers

A Police Scotland spokesman said the force "takes the safety and security of the independence referendum extremely seriously and is working with partner agencies including local authorities and the chief counting officer to ensure the integrity of the ballot".

"Any crime committed will be investigated appropriately," he added.

Stewart Hosie, the SNP's Treasury spokesman at Westminster, said it was "very sad that people feel the need to engage in any kind of impersonation".

He told Sky News: "I think that's a daft thing to do.

"The ballot papers have been identified, they will be taken away and fingerprinted, the police will do their job and I'm sure whoever has done it will be caught and sentenced.

"That's the correct procedure. It won't change the result but of course it shouldn't have happened, it is a silly, silly, thing for anyone to try to do."