TENS of thousands of Worcestershire people who are voting by post in the General Election have been reassured their votes will not be stolen.

Voting by mail has come under fire since six Birmingham Labour councillors were this week found guilty of "widespread" postal ballot fraud.

The judge in the case, Richard Mawrey, denounced "massive, systematic, and organised corruption' and condemned the practice of sending postal ballot applications by normal mail in clearly identifiable envelopes.

The criticism has forced Tony Blair to order a £10m emergency boost to help returning officers and police curb the problem.

But returning officers for Worcester City Council, Malvern Hills District Council and Wychavon District Council have maintained the system is safe for local people.

In Wychavon, 13,000 people are expected to register their vote by post.

"We have never had any cases of fraud that we know about," said Amanda de Warr, the district council's democratic services manager.

"We follow all the required legislation and guidance and ensure the process is followed as it should be.

"Anything can be open to fraud, but no such thing has happened in this area."

Worcester City Counci has just 8,000 people out of a total of 77,000 registered for postal voting.

"We have never had a large number of postal votes for some reason, and with those we have had, there haven't been any problems," said Diane Thomas, electoral registration officer for the council.

The small number of postal voters in Worcester is not reflected nationwide.

One in six voters - six million out of an electorate of 40 million - are expected to take up the option in the May 5 poll.