Our CEO, Mark Williams (shared with South Somerset) appears to have a split personality when it comes to voter registration.
In the large rural area of South Somerset, where door to door canvassing has always been done he sides with the Parliamentary Committee on Voter Registration which says that this is a mandatory step and it is breaking the law not to do it. A Committee member noted that the canvassing produced some 11,000- 12,000 extra names on the register in South Somerset.
In the large rural area of East Devon, where door to door canvassing has not been done since at least 2011, he sides with – er, well, himself and the ERO of Mid Devon – who say they are NOT breaking the law when they fail to do the canvassing. He says that this does not result in losing any voters as they are picked up “by other means” and that the other means are “more amiable” than going out to individuals on cold dark nights and trying to bribe them to register by saying that if you don’t you might not get a credit card. He did not address the concerns of EDA which says at least 6,000 voters were missing from the register at the last Euro election.
Here is a press release from the Electoral Commission, that says you MUST conduct house to house canvassing:
Here is the relevant part of the legislation. In South Somerset, Mr Williams follows it to the letter, in East Devon he chooses to believe that it gives him the right to be “flexible”.
“Duties of the Electoral Registration Officer
Steps to be taken by the Electoral Registration Officer
1.1 Under Section 9 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (RPA 1983) an Electoral Registration Officer has a duty to maintain registers of UK Parliamentary and local government electors containing the name, qualifying address and electoral number of those persons appearing to them to be entitled to be registered in it.
1.2 This duty on the Electoral Registration Officer to maintain the register includes, but is not limited to, the requirement to conduct an annual canvass in accordance with Section 10 of the RPA 1983 for the purpose of ascertaining any persons who are entitled to be registered. This annual canvass is conducted with reference to the relevant date of 15 October, the relevant date being the date on which a person must be resident at the address they are applying to be registered at.”
From http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1983/2/section/10/enacted
section 10 of the RotPA says:
“the registration officer shall—
(a) have a house to house or other sufficient inquiry made as to the persons entitled to be registered (excluding persons entitled to be registered in pursuance of a service declaration);”
In East Devon, Mr Williams relies on the last sentence to justify NOT canvassing, in South Somerset he relies on the information preceding it above to justify canvassing.
So, it seems Mr Williams has one rule for the Liberal Democrat controlled South Somerset District Council and one rule for the Conservative controlled East Devon District Council.
Will he explain the reasons for this difference at tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting?
East Devon Watch 