WHILE people in countries around the world battle to achieve democracy it's long been a sad fact that hundreds of thousands of people here can't be bothered to vote.

In local government elections across East Lancashire polling turnouts are often significantly below 50% which means the majority of people don't vote.

The democratic right generations fought for isn't exercised - not because of principle - but largely through apathy.

Some blame politicians and say their antics breed voter cynicism.

But recent experiments seem to show that low voter turnouts could be the result of the faster pace of life. People feel they simply cannot spare the time to go to polling stations.

In Chorley last year postal voting was credited with doubling polling figures to 61 per cent.

Trials of email, internet and telephone voting seem to have also boosted interest and votes.

Now it looks as if East Lancashire will be a testing ground in June with wider use of postal voting for district and European elections being used as a practice run for the autumn referendum on a North West Regional Assembly.

Some politicians are worried that postal voting could be manipulated by fraudsters.

These worries need to be eradicated fast because it is vital that more people vote.

It must be possible to introduce less time-consuming voting methods that are all but fraud-proof.