Heather du Plessis-Allan: This is why postal voting needs to go

Surely that judge throwing out the election result in Auckland has started the clock ticking on postal voting.

This case may not seem a big deal given that it involves just 79 votes, in just one subdivision, in just one relatively small local board election in Auckland.

David Farrar: Postal voting is very insecure

The Spinoff reports:

Over in Papatoetoe in the south of the city, police are investigating alleged election fraud after a surprise result that saw every member of a new political ticket elected in a landslide. The vote counts in the suburb stand out. Whereas turnout slumped almost everywhere else in the city, including next door Ōtara, in Papatoetoe, it rose by 7%. Incumbent board members received roughly the same number of votes that saw them elected comfortably in 2022. But they were beaten soundly by all four members of the Papatoetoe-Otara Action Team, who were all voted onto the board by 1,000-plus vote margins over their nearest rivals.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Is postal voting compatible with the democratic ideal of the secret ballot?

Election time in early to mid-Victorian England used to be a barrel of fun – quite literally, as candidates plied their potential constituents with liquor to gain their favour.

Deals were struck (usually accompanied by the tinkle of gold) with local personages who would see to it that the favour would be returned by all members of that constituency under their influence (bearing in mind that numbers of electors were much smaller in the days when only men who owned property could vote).