With the up-coming elections nearing Essex Police have shared advice about being fraud smart:

Electoral fraud is when someone tries to cheat in an election by breaking electoral laws. It is officially called electoral malpractice.

Electoral fraud includes:

Campaigning

  • not declaring campaign expenses properly
  • not including the names and addresses of the printer and who the leaflets were printed for on election leaflets

Voting

  • pretending to be someone else to use their vote
  • bribing someone to vote the way you want them to
  • abusing a position of power to persuade someone to vote your way, for example a religious leader telling their congregation which way to vote

Becoming a candidate

  • lying on a candidate nomination form
  • forging or making up signatures on a candidate nomination form
  • registering as a candidate when you are ineligible, for example because of your occupation or criminal record

Registration

  • registering to vote when you are not entitled to vote
  • lying about the deadline for people to register to vote, to stop people bothering to register

Click here to go to the Essex Police website for more advice : https://www.essex.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/fa/fraud