Observers raise concerns over secret ballot breaches at Gorton and Denton byelection

An election observer group has raised concerns over people appearing to collude on voting in the Gorton and Denton byelection.Democracy Volunteers, an organisation founded by Dr John Ault, and supported by the Conservative peer and psephologist Prof Robert Haywood, deployed four accredited election observers across the constituency.The team attended 22 of the 45 polling stations while polls were open, spending between 30 and 45 minutes in each, working in pairs.The organisation said its volunteers were looking at people appearing to collude on votes in breach of secret ballot rules, which it called “family voting”, as well as the impact of the requirement for voters to show ID before they were issued with a ballot paper.Manchester City Council said its staff had been trained to look for evidence of voter interference and that no concerns had been reported or raised with them while polls were open.Democracy Volunteers said that while the enactment of the Ballot Secrecy Act in 2023 made “family voting” more clearly a breach of the secret ballot, signage to discourage the practice was only seen in 45% of the polling stations observed.The observing team said they saw family voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations observed, reporting 32 cases in total, nine cases in one polling station alone. They observed a sample of 545 voters casting their votes, of which they said 12% either directed or were affected by family voting.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.”He added: “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 byelections, is extremely high.“In the other recent Westminster parliamentary byelection 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.”Labour said the reports were “extremely worrying and concerning”. Anna Turley, the Labour Party chair, told BBC Newsnight: “That’s not what we want to see in our democracy. So obviously we need to see the evidence and the report, and then make due decision about what authorities should look into this.”The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, told the same programme he would back an investigation. “I think it’s important that there’s full transparency about the democratic process, and if the recommendation is that there should be an inquiry or further steps then yes I’d support that,” he said.The Reform UK chair, David Bull, said that “electoral fraud is a stain on democracy”. He added: “We would support reporting it and making sure that it’s done in the spirit and fairness with the law.”The volunteers also observed cases of voters being turned away, but they said in every case this was due to not being registered to vote in Westminster elections – for example, if they had EU citizenship and were eligible to vote only in local elections.They also reported seeing voters taking photographs of their ballot papers, and one person being authorised to vote despite them already having been marked as voted earlier in the day.A spokesperson for the 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 byelection 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.”