Family Voting: observers raise concerns over secret ballot breaches at Gorton and Denton byelection

An election observer group has raised alarms over apparent collusion and breaches of the secret ballot in the Gorton and Denton byelection, calling the practice family voting. The observers say the incidents were unusually frequent and that the scale of the behaviour requires further scrutiny.

Democracy Volunteers deployment and methods in Gorton and Denton

Democracy Volunteers, an organisation founded by Dr John Ault and supported by the Conservative peer and psephologist Prof Robert Haywood, deployed four accredited election observers across the constituency. The team attended 22 of the 45 polling stations while polls were open, working in pairs and spending between 30 and 45 minutes at each location.

The volunteers said they were specifically looking at people appearing to collude on votes in breach of secret ballot rules—what they call family voting—and at the impact of the requirement for voters to show ID before being issued with a ballot paper. Over the course of their observation they sampled 545 voters casting votes.

Family Voting seen in 68% of observed stations and 32 cases recorded

The observers said they saw family voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations they visited, reporting 32 cases in total and nine cases in one polling station alone. Across their sample of 545 voters, they said 12% either directed or were affected by family voting.

Democracy Volunteers also noted that signage discouraging the practice was visible in only 45% of the polling stations they observed. The organisation pointed to the enactment of the Ballot Secrecy Act in 2023 as making family voting more clearly a breach of the secret ballot.

Ault's assessment and comparison with Runcorn and Helsby

Ault, director of Democracy Volunteers, said: “Today we have seen concerningly high levels of family voting in Gorton and Denton. Based on our assessment of today’s observations, we have seen the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK. ”

He added: “We rarely issue a report on the night of an election, but the data we have collected today on family voting, when compared to other recent byelections, is extremely high. ” The group contrasted the Gorton and Denton findings with a recent Westminster parliamentary byelection in Runcorn and Helsby, where they said family voting occurred in 12% of polling stations and affected 1% of voters. In Gorton and Denton, the observers said family voting occurred in 68% of the polling stations they sampled, affecting 12% of those voters observed.

Political reactions from Labour, Green and Reform UK figures

Labour described the reports as “extremely worrying and concerning. ” Anna Turley, the Labour party chair, said: “That’s not what we want to see in our democracy. So obviously we need to see the evidence and the report, and then make due decision about what authorities should look into this. ”

The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, said he would back an investigation: “I think it’s important that there’s full transparency about the democratic process, and if the recommendation is that there should be an inquiry or further steps then yes I’d support that. ” The Reform UK chair, David Bull, said that “electoral fraud is a stain on democracy” and added: “We would support reporting it and making sure that it’s done in the spirit and fairness with the law. ”

Manchester city council said its staff had been trained to look for evidence of voter interference and that no concerns had been reported or raised with them while polls were open.

Other procedural problems observers recorded at polling stations

The volunteers also observed cases of voters being turned away, and said that in every instance this was because the individuals were not registered to vote in Westminster elections—for example, EU citizens who are eligible to vote only in local elections. They noted voters taking photographs of their ballot papers, and said one person was authorised to vote despite them already — unclear in the provided context.

Democracy Volunteers said the scale of what it documented on the night represents the highest level of family voting in its decade of UK election observation and urged that the data and a full report be examined to determine whether further steps are warranted.