DM Firm's Software Identifies Postal Vote Fraud

Newly-introduced software that defines problem areas for fraudulent activity in postal voting was used with great success for the first time by direct mail producer K2 Group in the UK local elections.

The Manchester (UK) company printed and dispatched 350,000 postal voting packs, 1.4 million poll cards and 1.8 million ballot papers to councils throughout the country during the May polls.

And its new its Electorscan system was utilised by local authorities across the UK.

It not only managed to successfully check over half a million postal votes but it also highlighted fraudulent patterns in specific geographical areas of certain councils.

K2 now aims to further improve the package's strengths for the next elections and it is already in the process of gaining feedback from each of its customers to further develop the software.

The package offers the ability to scan and match postal voting statements and ballot papers, providing a full document matching service and audit trail, said the company.

Ann McLaughlin, business development director of K2's electoral management services division, commented: "This has been a particularly troublesome year for many local authorities but we successfully printed and delivered millions of ballot books, poll cards and postal voting packs.

We also helped many councils to fulfil the criteria of the new Electoral Administration Act, which requires them to capture and check a minimum of 20 per cent of signatures from postal ballots." She explained: "We feel that we are truly a market-leader in electoral management services and we are already launching new internet and telephone electoral registration services, which provide local authorities with the ability to offer automated services for annual canvas.".

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