What Is Family Voting and why observers raised concerns in Gorton and Denton

Democracy Volunteers has drawn attention to unusually high levels of what is family voting after observers logged dozens of apparent breaches of the secret ballot at the Gorton and Denton by-election — a finding that election officials and police say was not formally reported during polling hours. The discrepancy between observers' data and official statements has prompted party figures to call for evidence and possible inquiry.

What Is Family Voting: Democracy Volunteers' findings in Gorton and Denton

Democracy Volunteers, an organisation founded by Dr John Ault and supported by 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 in each station.

Observers reported family voting — described by the group as people appearing to collude on votes or family members influencing another person's vote, for example by entering the polling booth with them — in 15 of the 22 polling stations they visited. They observed a sample of 545 voters casting ballots and recorded 32 cases in total, including nine cases in a single polling station. Democracy Volunteers said the pattern amounted to family voting in 68% of polling stations across the constituency when scaled and that 12% of the voters they observed were either directed or affected by family voting; by contrast, a recent Westminster by-election in Runcorn and Helsby saw family voting in 12% of polling stations, affecting 1% of voters.

Police and the acting returning officer said no reports were made

Greater Manchester Police said they had received "no reports" of electoral offences at the Gorton and Denton by-election. The officer responsible for running the by-election rejected the observers' claims, saying polling station staff were trained to look for undue influence on voters and that "no such issues" had been reported during polling hours.

A spokesperson for the acting returning officer added that polling station staff are trained to look out for evidence of undue influence on voters and that no such issues had been reported. The spokesperson said if Democracy Volunteers had been so concerned about alleged issues they could and should have raised them with officials during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken.

Ballot Secrecy Act 2023, signage and ID checks at polling stations

Democracy Volunteers pointed to the Ballot Secrecy Act 2023, which made it a criminal offence to be in or near a polling booth with another person in order to influence them to vote in a particular way, as clarifying the legal status of family voting. The observers said signage discouraging family voting was seen in only 45% of the polling stations they observed.

The observing team was also looking at the impact of the requirement for voters to show ID before being issued with a ballot paper, noting that the ID check was part of the environment in which they were recording instances of apparent collusion on votes.

Political reactions and other polling-room issues recorded by volunteers

Labour described the reports as "extremely worrying and concerning"; Anna Turley, the Labour party chair, said the evidence and the observers' report needed to be seen before deciding what authorities should investigate. Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, said he would back an investigation and stressed the importance of full transparency about the democratic process and supporting further steps if recommended. David Bull, the Reform UK chair, called electoral fraud "a stain on democracy" and said his party would support reporting it and ensuring any action was done in the spirit and fairness with the law.

Volunteers also reported other issues inside polling stations: cases of voters being turned away because they were not registered to vote in Westminster elections — for example, EU citizens eligible only for local elections — and instances of voters taking photographs of their ballot papers. They also recorded one person being authorised to vote despite them already — unclear in the provided context.

Counting and next steps as observers and officials disagree

Party observers watched as votes were counted for the Gorton and Denton by-election at Manchester Central. Democracy Volunteers' director John Ault issued a statement after polls closed on Thursday saying observers had seen "the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10 year history of observing elections in the UK" and that the data collected on the night was "extremely high" when compared with other recent by-elections.

With police and returning officers saying no formal reports were made during polling hours and observers urging that their findings be examined, political figures have urged viewing the underlying evidence and the observers' full report before deciding on further action or inquiries.