I WRITE regarding the return to postal ballots which you reported last week.

It has already been pointed out that, quite frankly, last year's elections were an absolute sham.

But the heart of the problem lies far deeper than just spoilt ballot papers.

The whole idea of attending polling stations is to conduct a SECRET ballot of votes, and that each of those votes is cast by a person with the power to do so.

Women died to get the vote, but I can tell you that you would be surprised at the amount of women who still vote the way their husbands always do -- but at least they cast their vote.

The idea of multiple ballot papers dropping through the postbox filled me with horror last year.

What's to stop one person in a household filling the ballot paper in for every eligible person in that home -- and don't tell me it's impossible because you had to sign the thing, because no one at the election office knows what my signature looks like, so how on earth would they able to tell this was mine?

I can quite honestly say that I have discussed my voting intentions at every election with my husband, and that I have told him exactly how I have voted, but that is my prerogative, but who is to say that he, with good intentions, couldn't just think, "I'll fill this in for her, because I know what she'll be voting"? Good intentions, but I have the right to do it myself.

Now I know the voting system needs an overhaul, but surely we should be moving towards a more flexible system of casting your vote, say, by having polling booths in places that people go to on everyday business, such as supermarkets, schools (with the school still open I add) etc, and not this shambolic postal voting system which is open to abuse.

And, finally, at least when people went to the polling station, there was help at hand in explaining what to do for those who may have struggled with bad eyesight, etc., but now there is nothing, and I am given to understand that this year's elections will be complicated on several levels, not least because there is more than one election going on (local and Europeans).

Kathy Gee

Pinfold Close

Westhoughton