Polling station across South Somerset will be closed for the forthcoming local elections in May.

Instead, every one of the 120,000 voters in the region will automatically receive a postal ballot form - which normally has to be applied for - and a special id number and password to allow them to vote online.

The aim is to make the process easier and more accessible - and to increase voter turnout. At the last district elections in 1999, the turnout in South Somerset was 35%.

Other government-backed schemes around the country include opening polling stations for longer, electronic counting and all-postal voting.

'Experimental'

Bob Gillis, principal administrator of the election at the council, told BBC News Online that anti-fraud measures were in place.

"We are working with government-approved IT suppliers who have worked on voting systems around the world.

"We need to be experimental. We have to recognise that people do not see voting as a priority."

In South Somerset as a whole, 60 district councillors - plus parish councillors - will be elected in May.