6th September 2007

Dear Sir

The Green group supported the Lib Dem motion on pilot voting schemes which was passed at the September 5 council meeting. The May 2007 pilot was an expensive failure which is now unlikely be repeated. Sheffield has run quite enough election pilots - it should get back to focusing on the basics of elections. In particular, more effort should be put into checks on the postal vote system which is currently wide open to fraud. It was pleasing to see councillors recognise this by supporting the Green amendment for all political parties to make an annual commitment to the Electoral Commission Postal Voting Code of Conduct.

The system of issuing a polling card and voting at a polling station has been tried and tested over more than a hundred years. It is simple, cheap and keeps fraud to a minimum. We can only hope that the government recognises this for future elections.

Yours Sincerely

Eamonn Ward

Sheffield Green Party