New election laws will end the traditional election night

1.08.08pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 25th Jul 2006

No more vote counting on Thursday nights

The Electoral Administration Act was passed earlier this month after a protracted battle between the government and the House of Lords. The new law follows cases of electoral fraud in 2004 - when an elections judge in Birmingham said he had heard evidence which would disgrace a banana republic. The new laws mean election officials have to check signatures and dates of birth of postal voters - something they say cannot be done in one night. In Wolverhampton on election night in May there was an unexplained two hour holdup while election officials checked postal votes.

People voting by post will have to give their signature and date of birth both when they register to vote and when they send in their ballot and it will take an great amount of time to check the signatures and dates of birth in many constituencies. While some postal votes can be counted ahead of polling day, some people just hand in their postal ballots at traditional polling stations.

The postal votes checks are part of a raft of new measures designed to improve confidence in the security of the voting system. There are two new criminal offences against voting fraud - for supplying false information or failing to supply information to election registration officers.

Voters will also have to sign for their ballot papers at the polling stations in a move "to deter fraud".

The government has so far decided not to adopt the individual registration system recommended by the Electoral Commission and the Liberal Democrats. The out of date "head of household" concept in which one person registers all other eligible members of the family will continue. In the past this has led to stories in the local paper in which a "head of household" mocks the electoral office for sending a voting card to his baby. In reality the "head of household" had recorded the baby's name when filling in the annual electoral roll registration form.

Another aspect of the new law is that the minimum age for election candidates will be cut from 21 to 18 but the really good news is that the Dimbleby brothers will not be able to bore the nation with their all-night televised results marathon.