The council piloted a postal voting scheme in the recent local and elections, which involved fully-automated signature collection and checking processes.
The signatures are scrutinized before the votes are opened to provide greater security to those choosing to vote by post. Anyone who has a postal vote is asked to sign a statement that accompanies the ballot paper. The signature is scanned in and then compared automatically with the original sample of their signature, which was provided by the voter when they applied for a postal vote. So far, less than two per cent of signatures that have been checked using the software have failed to match up with the original. If the automated program identifies any signatures that do not match, the signature is then checked manually. If they still do not match, then the final decision rests with the returning officer.
Chief executive Dave Burbage, Newham's returning officer, said: "We want to be sure that people can be confident that their votes are secure. We have worked successfully with SEL in the past and we strongly believe that this system could lead to many new and innovative possibilities, such as electronically registering all voters in the borough."
Labour retained overall control of Newham in the recent council elections, with its Mayor Sir Robin Wales re-elected.
