What Is Family Voting — what is family voting in Gorton and Denton byelection observers' warning
Democracy Volunteers deployed observers across the Gorton and Denton constituency and recorded what is family voting as 32 apparent cases of collusion at the polls, the organisation says — a level it calls the highest in its 10-year history. The group’s on-the-ground tally and witness statements have prompted party leaders to call for further scrutiny.
Democracy Volunteers’ deployment and method in Gorton and Denton
Democracy Volunteers, founded by Dr John Ault and supported by Conservative peer and psephologist Prof Robert Haywood, sent 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 in each location.
What Is Family Voting: the scale revealed in the observers’ sample
The observing team said it saw family voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations observed, reporting 32 cases in total, with nine cases noted in one polling station alone. Observers sampled 545 voters casting ballots and recorded that 12% of those either directed or were affected by family voting. Dr John Ault, director of Democracy Volunteers, described the levels as "concerningly high" and said they represented the highest levels seen in the organisation’s 10-year history of observing elections.
Ault added that Democracy Volunteers rarely issues a report on election night but that the data collected on family voting in Gorton and Denton was "extremely high" when compared with other recent byelections. As a point of comparison, the organisation said it had seen family voting in 12% of polling stations in the recent Westminster parliamentary byelection in Runcorn and Helsby, affecting 1% of voters; by contrast, in Gorton and Denton the observers recorded family voting in 68% of the polling stations they attended, affecting 12% of voters observed.
Ballot Secrecy Act 2023, voter ID and signage at polling stations
The observers were explicitly looking at people appearing to collude on votes in breach of secret ballot rules, a practice they termed "family voting", and at the impact of the requirement for voters to show ID before they were issued with a ballot paper. Democracy Volunteers noted that the enactment of the Ballot Secrecy Act in 2023 made family voting more clearly a breach of the secret ballot, yet signage discouraging the practice was only visible in 45% of the polling stations observed.
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.
Party reactions and calls for further scrutiny
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. "
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, said he would back an investigation and urged transparency about the democratic process, adding that he would support recommendations for an inquiry or further steps. David Bull, chair of Reform UK, said that "electoral fraud is a stain on democracy" and that his party would "support reporting it and making sure that it’s done in the spirit and fairness with the law. "
Other polling-day irregularities recorded by observers
Volunteers also observed cases of voters being turned away; they said that in every recorded case this was due to individuals not being registered to vote in Westminster elections — for example, if they held EU citizenship and were eligible to vote only in local elections. Observers reported seeing voters taking photographs of their ballot papers, and noted one person being authorised to vote despite them already unclear in the provided context.
