COUNCIL bosses have moved to set the record straight on the borough's postal voting project.

Chief executive, Steve Weaver dismissed fears that the ballot was open to rigging, and has pledged to look at ways in which the system could be improved.

The bid to boost turnout was an unqualified success as Blackpool saw the sixth highest increase in the country.

But fears have been raised about the process used in the election -- with some claims that the system was open to abuse.

One fear was that, with individuals signing a counterfoil attached to the ballot paper, it would be possible to work out how they voted. A 'grey strip' is supposed to cover the ticks and crosses on the ballot paper, but, Mr Weaver says the counterfoil is removed before the papers are opened, though, if held up against a light, it may be possible to see how the vote was cast but with a witness from the electoral commission in attendance, along with candidates representatives, the council is confident this would be picked up on.

"The only people who touched the ballot papers were the town hall staff specially employed to do this. They had to sign a declaration of secrecy.

"Nobody could see how anybody voted. I am totally, utterly confident about that."

This area is, says Mr Weaver, something the council intends to address in future, with a black strip replacing the current grey to make it even harder to identify which way the vote went.

Another complaint is that candidates and their agents were able to get advance information on how the ballot was going.

This, concedes Mr Weaver, is partly true. The total number of ballot papers must be counted and placed into bundles of 50. This is done 'face up' because if the papers were 'face down' it may be possible to associate the unique serial number on each paper with the name of the voter on the electoral register, held separately.

Although votes are not divided by candidate at this stage, observers 'can get a feel' of the way the ballot is going, though, said Mr Weaver: "We had about 12 people counting the ballot papers, but only one person from each of the candidates. They could get a feel for it, but there is no way that anybody could accurately say how it was going."

However, if the postal vote scheme is repeated, this part of the verification process may be done with ballots 'face down' so they cannot be read.

The biggest question mark over the process regards security -- with several impassioned letters to the Citizen claiming the process is open to abuse.

The postal voting process means that ballot papers spend several days at the town hall before being transferred to the leisure centre for the count.

The ballot boxes are, says Mr Weaver, held in a private room with a new lock on the door and only a handful of keys pressed -- even the town hall cleaners were not allowed in.

At all times, except when they were being verified, the papers were kept in a locked ballot box with a numbered seal.

On the night of the count, the boxes were taken, under police escort, to be counted.

"The insinuation that there was some rigging I take quite personal offence to. It is just not possible," added Mr Weaver: "There was a double check on the numbers, so it was not possible for people to put papers in."

Mr Weaver says the all-postal ballot has attracted relatively few complaints, with just a handful of letters and telephone calls to the town hall.

And the process is still under the microscope -- a report from the Electoral Commission is expected soon, and will be made public. Also, as part of the verification process, one-in-ten voters is being contacted to confirm that they did vote. If any discrepancies are identified, they will be thoroughly investigated, with the police involved if necessary.

With turnout almost doubled from four years ago, and the discrepancies which saw twice as many votes cast in some wards than others eased, postal voting appears to have achieved its main objective.

And Mr Weaver has reminded voters that there are security flaws to the conventional system. But Blackpool voters haven't seen the last of the polling station or the ballot box yet. Next year's European elections will, almost certainly, be done the 'traditional' way, as will the next general election in 2006.

That leaves officials with plenty of time to fine tune the system before the next election in 2007.