To receive a presentation by the electoral commission.

Mr Adrian Green, Regional Manager – South West gave a presentation on the Electoral Commission’s work. He described the Commission’s structure noting that its two main functions were to regulate party and election finance and set standards for well-run elections.  This included registering parties and regulating finances, reporting on the conduct of elections and referendums, setting performance standards, advising on electoral law and procedures and providing public information and awareness.

He emphasised that the Commission did not make the rules or run elections or register electors.  Its role was to issue advice and guidance and make recommendations to government on election reporting.

He commented that many of the concerns expressed in the discussion of the previous agenda item on Electoral Registration Services had been shared regionally and nationally.  The 2007 elections had been very difficult because of the introduction of new legislation shortly beforehand and in particular the collection and checking of personal identifiers.

Key findings from the 2008 local elections were that they had generally run smoothly, election rules had been unchanged from 2007, the Electoral Administration Act was bedding down in England and Wales, there were a very small number of electoral fraud incidents, more people were voting by post, the majority of Returning Officers were checking 100% of postal voting identifiers (PVIs), and there was overall elector satisfaction with voting process

Key issues included concerns, if there were a general election, over the tightness of the electoral timetable, the higher number of late registration applications, the higher number of postal votes (printing, processing, checking PVIs) with possible capacity issues for suppliers, handling postal votes on cross local authority boundaries, and more postal votes being handed into polling station – with the consequent effect on the start of the count

Recommendations to government had included that there should be  a six-month period between legislation and the date of scheduled elections, standardisation of the  electoral timetable for all elections to 25 working days, enabling  independent candidates to have equal access to the register, the mandatory 100% checking of PVIs (whilst the legal minimum was 20% the Commission firmly believed it should be 100%), greater clarity on waiver rules and provision for refreshing personal identifiers, and mandatory standards for personal identifier storage, maintenance and exchange.

He added that the Political Parties and Elections Bill contained provisions for individual registration for electors in place of household registration.

Recommendations for electoral administrators had included that they should continue to hold briefings with candidates and agents, check 100% of PVI statements, write to electors whose signature or date of birth did not match, continue to provide training for all polling station staff (to a level equivalent to that of the presiding officer, as many problems seemed to occur in the temporary absence of the presiding officer), and provide better communication at counts for candidates and agents.

He commented also on the performance standards for electoral registration officers and the draft performance standards for returning officers.

In the course of discussion the following principal points were made:

·         A question was asked about arrangements for delivery of postal votes.  Mr Green said that guidance was issued to Royal Mail about the process.  The Returning Officer should make clear when postal votes would enter the system so that political parties could plan their campaigns accordingly.

·         Asked about the Council’s plans to print postal voting forms in-house Mr Green said that there was no national guidance covering this issue but the Commission was seeking to establish a standard way of holding postal voting identifiers so that the information could be transferred if needed.

·         The role of the Boundary Committee was discussed in the light of concerns of some Members that there were some anomalies in ward boundaries, with, for example, parts of a village being registered in different wards.  Mr Green said the principal aim was to secure equality of representation, although the Boundary Committee did have some discretion.  When a periodic review of the Unitary Authority was undertaken the Committee would publish draft proposals and it was at that stage that objections could be raised.  It was noted that Parish Councils or a specified proportion of the relevant electorate could petition the Unitary Authority to conduct a boundary review.

·         In response to comments about the storage of postal votes, and disclosure of information about them, officers confirmed that postal votes were stored securely and taken to the Count.  Agents and Candidates were notified of when postal votes were to be counted.  Lists of those who had requested a postal vote could be made available to candidates on request 

The Chairman thanked Mr Green for attending the meeting.