YOUR report (LET, May 17) about alleged electoral malpractice in Bastwell ward in the local authority election in Blackburn with Darwen in 2002 contains four inaccuracies.

1) The election was held on Thursday, May 2, 2002, and not in June.

2) Postal voting on demand was not available for the first time at this election. It was introduced for the local authority and parliamentary election on June 7, 2001, when Blackburn electoral registration office issued 10,967 parliamentary and 13,366 local authority postal ballots (instead of approximately 1,800 previously).

3) Since there are four polling districts in Bastwell ward -- four ballot boxes would have been used for those voting in person and the 1,571 returned postal ballots, out of 2,034, issued would have been stored separately. Under normal circumstances, all used ballot papers and counterfoils for a local authority election would be destroyed after six months. These beforehand can only legally be examined on order of an electoral court.

4) The ballot paper would not be signed (they would be rejected for any writing by which the elector could be identified if they were). Appropriate signatures would appear on the witnessed declarations of identity accompanying the postal ballots which, if still extant, can be checked by electoral registration and/or the Home Office in the light of alleged irregularities.

For an election result to be overturned, however, normally a petition has to be filed within 21 days of the declaration of result.

If postal ballots are marked by other then the elector and without the elector's consent and are submitted, this will constitute personation for which the guilty party can be sent to prison for up to two years -- and rightly so.

If any instance of interference with the integrity of the postal ballot is brought to the attention of the officers of Blackburn Labour Party and is established, the culprits will be dealt with very severely on a disciplinary basis -- almost definitely culminating in expulsion from the party.

MICHAEL J POULTNEY (Ward agent -- Little Harwood with Whitebirk and Higher Croft Wards, 2002 -- and Treasurer, Blackburn Labour Party), Welbeck Avenue, Blackburn.