Fear of fraud is one of the main reasons many people opposed plans for an

all-postal vote at the city elections in May.

This worry has been heightened by the case of Peter Mahon, who was sent instructions by Brighton and Hove City Council about how to vote almost two years after he died.

If the council can make such an elementary mistake as this, how many more forms has it sent out to the wrong people or the wrong addresses?

The council should have known Mr Mahon had died. After all, it paid for his funeral and stopped his housing benefit.

The idea of having an all-postal vote is to get more people to fill in their ballot papers.

However, postal voting forms are not filled in at polling stations, where there are checks by officials who know what they are doing.

The prospects for fraud are limited but do exist and could even make a difference to results in highly marginal wards.

Council officials are keen to explain how the new system works, which is why they sent the instructions to every voter on the electoral roll.

At least this letter will, as in Mr Mahon's case, find out some faults and errors in the system.

Now voters need to be reassured the system is as foolproof as possible for the elections themselves.