You are uniquely placed to identify incidents and patterns of activity that might indicate electoral fraud in your area.
Effective early action to address possible fraud could help to avoid costly police investigations or legal challenges to the results of elections.
You should ensure that you have mechanisms in place to assess the risk of electoral fraud in your area, including considering:
whether there has been a history of allegations of electoral fraud in parts of Greater London, including in specific boroughs
whether the election is likely to be particularly close and hard fought
whether the contest which is based on strong personal disagreements as well as political arguments
where there is a highly mobile population with a frequent turnover of electors
where there are electors who may be more vulnerable because of low levels of literacy and/or English language ability
Your plans for managing the risk of electoral fraud across the police area will need to reflect any specific risks you or CROs have identified in addition to any general fraud detection plans.
For example, you should consider the risks associated with houses of multiple occupation, student halls of residence or care homes where other people may have access to personal mail or where care givers may assist residents in care homes with completing postal vote applications or postal votes.
Your plans should also set out mechanisms for monitoring indicators of possible electoral fraud and setting thresholds for action in response. Although there are no definitive signs of possible electoral fraud, you should be aware of and consider with CROs and EROs whether:
there have been unusual patterns in registration, absent vote, or Voter Authority Certificate applications at other elections in the Greater London Authority area
there have been unusual patterns of rejected ballot papers, including rejected postal ballot packs, at other elections the Greater London Authority area
there is any unusual pattern of registration, absent vote or Voter Authority Certificate applications in the period leading up to the election.