Brendan Clarke-Smith wants postal votes banned following party’s local elections catastrophe | indy100

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Despite recent changes to voting in elections - in the form of introducing voter ID – being criticised as “gerrymandering” by Jacob Rees-Mogg and resulting in the prime minister who introduced it (Boris Johnson) being turned away from the polling station in the recent local elections, one Tory MP thinks it’s a good idea to change up the democratic process some more by banning postal votes.

Brendan Clarke-Smith, the Bassetlaw MP and former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party who was spoon-fed baked beans by Lee Anderson on GB News, took to Twitter/X on Tuesday to write: “Postal voting – it’s time to scrap it.”

His comments come after the Conservatives lost more than 470 councillors in the local elections last week, and saw defeats for incumbent West Midlands mayor Andy Street and London mayoral candidate Susan Hall.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Clarke-Smith added postal votes undermine “tradition and making the effort” and claimed there are “a number of concerns relating to the abuse of postal votes and the potential for fraud”.

“This is especially the case for areas with unusually high numbers registered and in cases where heads of households can decide the votes of others, or postal votes are going to unoccupied student accommodation or houses of multiple occupation.

“We even had to change the law because campaigners would go around collecting them.

“Whilst there will always be exceptions - such as for those with disabilities or for our armed forces, who already have a different system - allowing postal votes for everybody needs to stop.

“We are regularly told by the left that most people who use postal votes are elderly Conservative voters, so why are they suddenly so afraid of this proposal,” he said.

Well, Brendan only needs to look at his Twitter mentions to get a good idea of the answer:

So that disabled people and elderly people and people with caring responsibilities can\u2019t vote is it?
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\u201cWe brought in photo ID to try to rig the elections and we still lost\u2026 Let\u2019s try scrapping postal voting.\u201d
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Removing postal votes would discriminate against:\n\nClinically Vulnerable people\nCarers\nElderly people\nDisabled people\nPeople with health problems\nStudents\nMilitary personnel\nRural populations\n\nWe should make voting MORE accessible not LESS. \n#MyMaskMyVote\ud83d\ude37
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They introduce voter I.D - still lost\n\nThey scrapped the supplementary vote in London - still lost\n\nNow they want to scrap postal voting because they're afraid of losing more\n\nIt's not the voting system that's the problem - it's your 14-year record of failures & ruining Britain.
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Brendan Clarke-Smith trying to stop the democratic process re Postal Voting\n\nThere is literally nothing this grubby bunch of charlatans won't try, is there? \n\nSooner they're gone the better\n\n#GeneralElectionlNow
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Why not get rid of voting altogether? It\u2019s so inconvenient.
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What arrogant entitlement! Convinced there\u2019s a \u201csilent\u201d - VERY silent - majority that supports them and they just need to \u201cadjust\u201d democracy until the result matches their wishes. \n\nAnd all this, after a decade of screeching \u201cWill of The People\u201d and \u201cyou lost get over it\u201d. ~AA
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If you perform badly at elections, just try to change the rules - rinse and repeat
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This is the equivalent of flipping the chess board over because you lost.
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Let me guess, next stop, scrap voting
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@Bren4Bassetlaw Nah, reckon we\u2019ll just scrap the Tories instead\u2026
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@Bren4Bassetlaw "It's time to restrict democracy".\n\nOf the 1,462 cases of alleged electoral fraud reported to police between 2019 and 2023, 10 led to convictions and the police issued 4 cautions.\n\nPlease stop.
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@Bren4Bassetlaw Why? If someone is out of the country when an election takes place, should they have no say in it? How about if they're due to be hospitalised? No say then, either? What about people who are housebound? No say? \n\nYou're throwing your toys out of the pram. Again.
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The Tory MP’s attack on postal votes has also seen him compared to former US president Donald Trump, who has spread a number of false fraud claims about the voting method – known as ‘mail-in ballots’ across the pond – in recent years.

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