rigging the vote

Two former Havant councillors were jailed, and two others fined, in what was only the second prosecution in modern times for vote rigging. They had faked a small number of postal votes in an attempt to shore up victory in their local council election in 2000.

The judge said: "The matter goes to the heart of our democracy, which cannot be distorted. Everyone should know that deliberately tampering with elections will result in a prison sentence."