Record numbers of illegal ‘family voting’ have taken place at the Gorton and Denton by-election, official observers have reported.
Official election observer group Democracy Volunteers says it witnessed the highest amount of family voting in its 10-year history.
They said they saw family voting in the majority (15 out of 22) of the polling stations they were at across the constituency, where there were 45 stations in total.
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What’s family voting?
Family voting is where two voters either confer, collude or direct each other on voting, which is illegal under the 2023 Ballot Secrecy Act.
Sky’s Anna Jones asked cabinet minister Heidi Alexander for her reaction to the statement by Democracy Volunteers.
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She replied: “Clearly the reports that came in overnight are concerning. Elections must be conducted in line with electoral law.
“People should be able to vote in a free way and not subject to any coercion.
“And so it would be right that the appropriate authorities, including potentially the Electoral Commission, look into those reports.”
Who is the Democracy Volunteers group and what does it claim?
Democracy Volunteers are the only group, apart from the police, approved to stand inside a polling station.
They said they recorded 32 cases of family voting, with nine in one polling station alone.
The four observers spent between 30 and 45 minutes at each of those polling stations, and saw a sample of 545 voters casting their vote.
This means 12% of those voters either caused or were affected by family voting.
John Ault, director of Democracy Volunteers, said: “Today we have seen concerningly high levels of family voting in Gorton and Denton.
“Based on our assessment of today’s observations, we have seen the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK.
“We rarely issue a report on the night of an election, but the data we have collected today on family voting, when compared to other recent by-elections, is extremely high.
“In the other recent Westminster parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, we saw family voting in 12% of polling stations, affecting 1% of voters. In Gorton and Denton, we observed family voting in 68% of polling stations, affecting 12% of those voters observed.”
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How has the local authority responded?
The local council said their staff had not seen “any evidence of undue influence on voters” and no issues were reported.
A spokesperson for the local council’s acting returning officer said: “Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.
“If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken. We have operated a central by-election hub which has been rapidly responding to reported issues during the day, in liaison with the police – who had a presence at every polling station – where necessary.
“It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims.”
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What has the reaction been?
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said his party’s candidate was defeated because of “cheating”.
Mr Farage posted on X: “This election was a victory for sectarian voting and cheating. Matt Goodwin was a great candidate for us.
“Roll on the elections on May 7th. It will be goodbye Starmer and goodbye to the Tory party.”
A Greens spokesperson said: “This is an attempt to undermine the democratic result and is straight out of the Trump playbook.
“We’ve just won a historic by-election by a comfortable margin.
“We’ve shown the country that Greens can beat Reform, despite their big business donations.”
Elections expert Lord Hayward, who introduced the Ballot Secrecy Act, called the report by Democracy Volunteers “concerning”.
He told Sky News: “The Ballot Secrecy Act, which I introduced and steered through both Houses into law, should have stopped such practices.
“I am very disappointed and will be discussing these details with Democracy Volunteers further. I may then want to discuss matters with the Electoral Commission and government.”
A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission said in a statement: “We are aware of the report. Electoral offences are a matter for the police. We encourage anyone who believes an offence has occurred to report it to the police.”
