From P Freeman, comment on earlier post:
I learned today from a FoI to the Electoral Commission that our ERO / RO has not fulfilled his responsibilities in another area, specifically ‘How many people tried to vote on polling day and were found not to be registered?’.
Most other ERO/RO have provided this information, but a few including East Devon’s RO/ERO have not.
Our officers will DEFINITELY need some special training on this one!
And what a difference it would have made on the Information Commissioner v East Devon District Council case!
Particularly that young people feel less connected to the coast than over 55’s and that, according to the National Trust, coastal tourism is down 20% overall:
It would seem so.
East Devon Election and Returning Officer Mark Williams (also CEO of East Devon District Council) rather grudgingly admitted that “things had gone wrong” at the last election but said it would not happen again in this newspaper article published today:
No mention of the fact that he was hauled in to a Parliamentary Committee to explain why he “lost” 6,000 voters (answer: because he thought his idea of telephoning missing voters was better than the government’s guidance of visiting them), was particularly noted by the Electoral Commission for not following those guidelines, or why East Devon was one of only SEVEN councils out of more than 400 to have made MULTIPLE mistakes. OR that he has been doing the job for years but still doesn’t seem to have got it quite right.
If it were a junior officer or councillor who had not been considered up-to-scratch (particularly an Independent Councillor) would he or she had got off so lightly?
Teflon-coated?
East Devon Watch 