How is postal voting organised in the US ? Here, under a recent change in the rules, anyone may apply to vote by post. No reason is given, the voter simply asks for a postal vote.It used to be required that the voter give some reason, such as being in hospital on the poll date. This is now a system wide open to fraud because nobody can check the signature of the voter; nothing is available to check it against; nor of the witness,nor indeed is there any check whether the voter resides at the address given .

So we have had two recent cases, both in local elections. In one at least three thousand postal votes were fraudulent. The candidates had collected valid votes from electors and then altered them. They had used a corrupt postman to misdeliver sackfuls of electoral forms to them or their accomplices; easy enough as the envelopes are marked as electoral ! They had visited people and 'helped' them by taking the forms for them or had simply arrived at households and offered the postal forms with the X already against the right name. They'd even employed boys to take the envelopes from letter boxes and so on. Many voters were surprised to find that they had voted at all and others that they had voted for the candidate shown as they had preferred another One judge said that the system would have been better suited to a banana republic than to democracy in Britain's second biggest city. His case was the first case of electoral fraud here in 100 years

The system has not been changed in time for the election on May 5th . There could be interesting cases come May 6th

Like many US election laws, it depends on the state. Some require a reason for absentee voting, others don't.

In Michigan you can get an absentee ballot for the following reasons:

I expect to be absent from the county on election day

I am a voter with disabilities ; unable to vote without assistance at the polls.

I am a voter at least 60 years if age

I expect to have official election duties outside my voting precinct

I am unable to attend the polls due to my religious beliefs.

I am in jail awaiting arraignment or trial.


You must request in writing that you want the absentee ballot. Your qualifying reason (one of the above) and your signature is on the request. This signature is matched to your voter card. If your reason and signature is accepted then and ONLY then you will receive an absentee ballot. You also have to sign the ballot that you fill out. All signatures are checked against your voter card on file. (your voter card on file has your legal signature) You also sign the return ballot. Completed ballots are mailed back to clerks office. All ballots are checked to see if there is a request on file for that request. Ballots received will not be accepted if they have been opened. You also have to sign the outside of the envelope. If signatures don't match then the ballot is no good. Ballot envelopes are not easy to open without ripping them apart. The ballots are in big wide yellow envelopes.

The opening of a letter box or letter is a felony.

This site links to absentee voting requirements for each state.

Thanks. Our rules were like most of yours. There were few voters who voted by post. In some misguided moment the government decided that giving anyone and everyone a postal vote,simply on request and without reason given, would ensure a higher percentage of the electorate voting .(This is often low in local elections, though high in national ones). We may guess that the number of genuine voters who would and will now vote by post remains much as it was; people with reasons such as absence on business or illness or infirmity. If someone can't be bothered to drop by to vote, even on their way to the pub, then they won't be bothered to vote at all, postally or otherwise.

Anyone with an ounce of criminal law experience would have seen instantly that the offices would be overwhelmed with postal votes that nobody could check and that large numbers would likely be fraudulent.So the percentage voting was higher but 'mysteriously' in some small areas it was vastly more than ever before, far more than in adjacent areas, and the extra was all postal