The Scandal of Postal Votes

I am strongly opposed to the widespread use of postal votes. They may encourage a slightly higher turnout, mostly from people who otherwise would not make the effort (a dubious benefit in itself), but the opportunities for fraud and coercion far outweigh this. We have never historically had any serious doubts about the validity of UK polls - why on earth are we jeopardising this record to scrape up a few extra % for the turnout?

The recent case of postal vote fraud in Blackburn is particular cause for concern, as spelt out in this article

Responding to an earlier refusal from the government to overhaul the postal voting rules [the judge] said: "Anybody who has sat through the case I have just tried and listened to evidence of electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic would find this statement surprising."

As a bare minimum they ought to be keeping postal votes separate so that the ratios can be compared to those of the standard votes. Though obviously not foolproof, this could flag up problems for further investigation if one party seems to be favoured disproportionately.