Electoral fraud

Electoral fraud is when someone tries to cheat in an election by breaking electoral laws. It is officially called electoral malpractice.

Electoral fraud includes:

Campaigning

• not declaring campaign expenses properly

• not including the names and addresses of the printer and who the leaflets were printed for on election leaflets

Voting

• pretending to be someone else to use their vote

• bribing someone to vote the way you want them to

• abusing a position of power to persuade someone to vote your way, for example a religious leader telling their congregation which way to vote

Becoming a candidate

• lying on a candidate nomination form

• forging or making up signatures on a candidate nomination form

• registering as a candidate when you are ineligible, for example because of your occupation or criminal record

Registration

• registering to vote when you are not entitled to vote

• lying about the deadline for people to register to vote, to stop people bothering to register

Report electoral fraud