The Guardian’s “All you need to know” guide.
Category Archives: Voting
Nine police forces investigating Conservative election expenses
West Mercia is to investigate the Devon and Cornwall PCC case to keep a “cordon sanitaire” around Ms Hernandez’s conflict of interest with her own chief Constable.
“Lincolnshire becomes latest force to launch inquiry into allegations that Conservatives incorrectly categorised 2015 election costs
Nine police forces have launched inquiries into whether the Conservative party breached spending rules during the 2015 general election campaign.
Lincolnshire police became the latest force to confirm on Thursday that they were investigating the claims as the Tories handed over evidence regarding the controversy to the Electoral Commission.
The allegations regarding breaches of spending rules centre on claims that the party listed the costs of bussing activists into key marginal seats under national spending accounts, rather than as local spending.
Lincolnshire appears to be the ninth police force examining the allegations, which were first broadcast by Channel 4 News. The others are Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and West Mercia, and Devon and Cornwall.
Any candidate found guilty of an election offence could face up to one year in prison and being barred from office for three years.
A statement from Lincolnshire police said: “We are aware of recent media reporting regarding allegations of irregularities in the election expenses of the Conservative party and some of their candidates in the general election 2015, and three byelections in 2014.
“We can confirm that we are carrying out general enquiries, but we will not be commenting further until they are complete.”
The Electoral Commission went to the high court on Thursday for an information disclosure order to seek the documents.
Within hours, the commission said it had received the documents from the Conservatives and was reviewing them.
Senior Tories insisted that the legal action was not necessary as they had always intended to hand the details over.
“We advised the Electoral Commission on 29 April that we would comply with their notices by 1pm today, and have done so. There was no need for them to make this application to the high court,” a spokeswoman said.
The party acknowledged that due to an “administrative error”, some accommodation costs for the activists were not properly registered, but insisted that the bus tour was part of the national campaign organised by Conservative campaign headquarters and as such, it did not have to fall within individual constituency spending limits.”
http://nr.news-republic.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=4&articleid=64278297
Electoral Commission takes Conservative Party to court over election expenses
“It’s awkward timing for David Cameron, who launches his anti-corruption summit today in London:
he Electoral Commission is taking the Conservative Party to the High Court over the election spending scandal.
The Mirror [ but at the instigation of Channel 4 News] revealed two months ago that at least 24 Tory MPs had help from notorious battle buses ferrying hundreds of volunteers to marginal constituencies during the 2015 general election but didn’t declare any of the spending as required by law.
Breaching spending limits is a criminal offence and could lead to calls for by-elections.
It comes at an awkward time for David Cameron, who today kicks off an anti-corruption summit in London.
The slowly-unfolding scandal has led to several MPs and one Police and Crime Commissioner coming under criminal investigation by police.
The Electoral Commission are taking the Tories to the High Court to force them to reveal documents detailing the spending on Battle Buses ahead of the 2015 general election.
The Commission have already asked the Tories twice for the documents, but they have only provided “limited” disclosure.
Political parties have a legal obligation to provide full spending disclosures to the Commission on request.
Bob Posner, Director of Party and Election Finance and Legal Counsel at the Electoral Commission said: “If parties under investigation do not comply with our requirements for the disclosure of relevant material in reasonable time and after sufficient opportunity to do so, the Commission can seek recourse through the courts.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/electoral-commission-takes-tories-high-7952712
Privatisation of council services and voting
Major cock-up in the Conservative-led London Borough of Barnet (where most of its services have been handed over at huge cost to Capita with remaining officers demoralised) as registered voters were turned away from polling booths. Their (Labour) Labour London Assembly member said:
“Following yesterday’s terrible cock-ups where voters were turned away in Barnet, only to be told they could go back and vote, well, the council have some explaining to do.
“This is Barnet Council at its worst. ”
He told returning officer Andrew Travers he will have to “do a lot better”, blaming the mess on the way the authority has privatised its services.
He added: “This is as a result of the council cuts, privatization and a complete lack of scrutiny by senior officers and senior members of the council leadership.
“This cock-up shows they are not in control, not in charge and not resourcing the council properly.
“One thing the council should do properly is respect the democratic process and ensure elections are not seen as an inconvenience that get in the way – they are something that should be done properly and effectively to allow the people to be properly represented.”
http://www.timesseries.co.uk/news/14477073.Andrew_Dismore_wins_by_a_huge_majority_in_Barnet/
Voting in the digital age – just one problem …
“In a digital age when voting and registration ought to be getting quicker and easier the UK seems to be bent on keeping the system slow and inconvenient.
Other countries do it differently. Belgium, Norway and Israel are trying internet voting, as are a couple of states in America. Online voting would be a boon to Devon and Cornwall, which has pockets of sparsely populated areas where voters have a relatively long and off-putting distance to travel to the polling station.”
The problem? Many areas of rural Devon (including East Devon) still do not have internet access and seem unlikely to have it for many years, if at all.
And we are still awaiting Councillor Twiss’s Plan B after EDDC’s application for a grant from the Government was turned down (and turned down again on appeal) after the Government said it was not value-for-money.
9 ways to democratic voting
“…
If Westminster was seriously worried about our decaying democracy, reform would be a hot issue, not a dusty topic left to political nerds. We need a great convention with widespread public consultation. Here are eight reforms I would propose.
1. Start with the practicalities. Make it easy to vote, with electronic voting. If it’s safe for banking, it’s safe for voting.
2. Let voters register on election day, as the young and the poor keep moving on short-term tenancies.
3. Make voting compulsory.
4. Give votes to 16-year-olds, compulsory for first timers, so schools and colleges register them and take them down to polling stations: those who vote once keep the habit.
5. Bring back the citizenship classes Michael Gove abandoned, as a compulsory GCSE – more useful than hanging gerunds. Candidates would spend as much time bribing school students as Saga cruisers.
6. Next comes restoring the credibility and reputation of politics. Clean up corruption with state party funding, apportioned by voters choosing on election ballot papers where their share of funds should go. No more plutocrats buying favours, nor union funding.
7. Seats in a new elected Lords would not be for sale, nor would 26 bishops make law in this unbelieving nation.
8. Make every vote count equally, with a single transferable vote: in a group of seats, most voters would end up represented by an MP they had chosen, with many more women than the current 29% and more minorities. Everyone could vote for the party of their choice, with a backstop vote for their least worst. How utterly inept Farage has been in failing to rouse up outrage among his 3.8 million voters who only secured one seat, as did the Green’s 1 million voters.
9. There should a national convention to draw up a new great reform act – with people adding their suggestions.”
Another cock-up with voting …
Today’s Express and Echo (page 3) reveals that, as late as 48 hours ago, CEO and Returning Officer Mark Williams was desperately tweeting to find presiding officers for the PCC elections in Lympstone and Exmouth.
The tweet, posted on May 3, at 3.19pm, said: “@eastdevon needs Presiding Officer for Woodbury Village Hall & Exmouth Littlemead Methodist Churchroom for Police election Thurs 5 May”.
The Express and Echo says: “The council came in for criticism in May last year after delays at the count for the General Election in Sidmouth. A representative said at the time that the expected announcement time of 2am was pushed back to 6 am ‘because of the sheer number of ballot papers’ ”
Hard to believe as the turnout was pretty similar to four years before.
And the article neglects to say that these problems are not new. The CEO was hauled before Parliament to explain how he “lost” six thousand voters from the electoral roll (because he decided that individual homes would not be canvassed but that officers would telephone people who need following up – though how he knew who to follow-up was never explained.
And, of course, there was the Case of the Misprinted Postal Ballot Papers in Sidmouth, that had to be withdrawn and resent as they had the wrong voting instructions on them.
It seems that the longer our CEO does the Electoral Officer and Returning Officer jobs (for which he is handsomely recompensed in addition to his CEO salary) the worse he gets at it.
Perhaps time to give up the day job(s)?
Voting omnishambles – they deal with them differently in the USA
“A New York City Board of Elections official has been suspended after reports of voters being turned away and polling sites opening late in Brooklyn during Tuesday’s presidential primary election.
Brooklyn Chief Clerk Diane Haslet-Rudiano has been suspended without pay pending an internal probe into ‘the administration of the voter rolls’
Roughly eight percent of active voters in Brooklyn were removed from the voter-registration roll.
Haslett-Rudiano made an error that caused them to be removed during a periodical purging for voters who died or moved away. Other problems included some polling sites being opened late, training of poll workers and incorrect primary notifications were mailed out.”
Around 6 per cent of voters in East Devon disappeared from our electoral roll, postal voting papers had to be reissued because they were wrongly printed (blamed on inexperienced helpers) and our electoral officer decided not to send out election officials to visit homes where people were not registered and the officer was called to a parliamentary committee to explain himself.
Then? Nothing at all happened.
Another voice on the unreliability of party politics
“… Our electoral system reliably herds voters through the old party gates at general election time, regardless of where we graze mid-term. Traditional allegiances have proved resilient enough in the past that the safe bet is on their endurance. We probably won’t get a grand political realignment out of this referendum, but we might learn how much we need one.”
“Britain’s two-party political system isn’t working” – more Independents needed says former Conservative spin master
“Voters are disillusioned with a malfunctioning democracy. The system must change so independent candidates have a fair chance of election:
It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s clear that people are looking for a new kind of politics that goes beyond traditional party lines: a politics first and foremost of engagement and transparency, not reducible to the old left-right divide. …
… Change is long overdue. In the 1950s, politics was simpler. Workers voted Labour, the middle class and the wealthy voted Conservative. About 90% of votes went to one of these two parties. But by 2015, the combined total had dropped to just over two-thirds. Voters today are searching for new options beyond the two-party model. …
… In today’s age of nearly unlimited information, our world views are nuanced and sophisticated, but our creaking democratic processes struggle to reflect this. Where do you go if you are a Conservative on the economy, a Green on the environment, Labour on social justice, Liberal Democrat on human rights? That is not an unusual combination. But Westminster politics still pushes a false, binary simplicity. …
… Even if an independent candidate does get on the ballot, it’s next to impossible for voters to discover that there might be someone outside the two-party system who genuinely matches their views. …
… In today’s age of nearly unlimited information, our world views are nuanced and sophisticated, but our creaking democratic processes struggle to reflect this. Where do you go if you are a Conservative on the economy, a Green on the environment, Labour on social justice, Liberal Democrat on human rights? That is not an unusual combination. But Westminster politics still pushes a false, binary simplicity.
This is where the corruption comes in, because the principal barrier to a more open and diverse politics in the UK is money. Thankfully, it plays a far lesser role in Britain than America – where money from fundraising Super Pacs dominates campaigning. But even here, you need cash to stand for office, to run a campaign, to get elected. Who can afford to do that? Only the centralised party organisations. And where do they get their money? The same old sectoral interests – the financial industry on the right and the unions on left. …
… Even if an independent candidate does get on the ballot, it’s next to impossible for voters to discover that there might be someone outside the two-party system who genuinely matches their views. …
… If we’re ever going to see the kind of modern, responsive and open-minded politics that people are crying out for, we have to break the grip of the party machines and get more independent, and independent-minded, candidates elected to office, at every level of government. But such candidates face enormous obstacles. Only parties have the muscle to win most elections, and party insiders control candidate selections tightly.
The barriers to political participation must be removed and the stranglehold of the big party machines broken, so that the power can be taken out of the hands of the insiders, the moneyed interests and the Westminster power brokers – and put where it belongs: in the hands of the people.
Monday 18 April 2016 – last day to register to vote in local voting and EU referendum
Use this service to apply to register to vote or to:
update your name, address or other details on the electoral register
change your voting preferences, eg to vote in person or by post
change whether you’re on the open register
It usually takes about 5 minutes.
You may need the following, if you have them:
your National Insurance number
your passport if you’re a British citizen living abroad
You need to be on the electoral register to vote in elections and referendums.
UK: the worst score for electoral integrity in Western Europe
The UK scores worst in electoral integrity in Western Europe. Here’s why:
The UK performs poorly when it comes to issues of electoral integrity, lagging behind European neighbours but does particularly poorly when compared with Scandinavia – which as is the case in many fields outperforms Britain.
Here, Pippa Norris looks at the reasons why, pointing to voter registration procedures, electoral laws, media coverage, constituency boundaries, and the counting and results process:
Issues of electoral malpractice have received growing attention in the UK. The House of Commons Library briefing on Electoral offences since 2010 gives details of the reports published by the Electoral Commission and the Associations of Chief Police Officers on cases of alleged malpractice.
Questions have arisen over insecure postal ballots, proxy voting, and fraudulent practices. The Electoral Commission issued warnings of potential ‘ethnic kinship’ voting in British Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, a practice thought to make these areas particularly vulnerable to electoral fraud.
Sir Eric Pickles, the Government’s Anti-Corruption Champion, has reviewed electoral fraud to make recommendations on what could be done to tackle the problem.Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, has claimed that electoral fraud is a ‘growing phenomena’ in British elections.
Polling Day in the UK General Election
The UK General Election on May 7th 2015 certainly generated several media reports of alleged malpractices and shortfalls.
On polling day, technical glitches were reported in Hackney and Dorset following problems with the electoral roll and distribution of cards for the incorrect polling station, blamed by officials on information technology and printing errors.
Bournemouth council apologized after 100 people were unable to cast their vote in the local elections because an administrative blunder had led to the wrong ballot papers being issued. Earlier 250,000 ballot papers went missing after a printer’s van was stolen in Eastbourne and Hastings.
The Electoral Commission investigated complaints that some overseas voters had not received their voting packs in time. The Guardian reported that Metropolitan police received 18 allegations of electoral fraud in the run up to polling day.
In Tower Hamlets, the High Court suspended the Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, after he was found guilty of falsifying postal votes and putting undue pressure on voters at polling stations during the 2014 local and European elections.
In Darlington, the BBC reported that the UKIP candidate’s name was missing on ballot papers.
Finally, the Telegraph reported that the Scottish Tory party leader tweeted claims of voter intimidation in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, with the allegations investigated by local police.
None of these were major issues, compared with problems common in many other countries, but they may still have undermined public confidence in the electoral process. When asked beforehand in the British Election Study, the majority of citizens expected that the election would be conducted fairly, but almost one fifth (18%) thought that it would be unfairly conducted. …”
To vote in EU referendum you must be registered by 18 April 2016
Registration online is quick and easy and can be done here:
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
You will need your National Insurance Number (usually found on pay slips if you do not have a record of it) and it takes about 5 minutes.
Electoral registration – changes “negative for democracy”
“Reforms to the electoral registration process under this and the previous coalition government have led to changes which experts and campaigners alike have described as negative for democracy.
We stand at a critical crossroads in our democracy. The number of people that are on the electoral register is in long-term decline. It was estimated that up to 7.5 million people were not registered in 2014. During the transition to individual electoral registration (IER) another 1.4 million names were removed. Dramatically, the number of attainers, our next generation of voters, fell by 40%.
In a draft report, co-authored with Bite The Ballot, and presented to the All-Party Parliamentary Party on Democratic Participation for discussion today, new information is unveiled about the nature of the problem. Findings from a new UEA survey of electoral administrators, as detailed in the report, shows that two-thirds of electoral administrators agreed that citizens had complained to them about the registration process being bureaucratic. Roughly half of electoral officials thought that the completeness of the register had declined.”
Tory Devon Police and Crime commissioner candidate caught up in expenses scandal
It appears that Tory Police and Crime Commissioner candidate, Alison Hernandez, was the election agent for new Torbay MP Kevin Foster. Mr Foster is one of a number of Tory MPs being investigated for potentially/allegedly breaching strict candidate expenses rules by using a Tory national “battle bus” in a local area but not charging it as a local election expense.
http://www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/Torbay-MP-Kevin-Foster/story-28834878-detail/story.html
The Daily Mirror has estimated that the bus should be costed at around £2000 per day.
Reported here:
and in the Daily Mirror story here:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-mps-broke-election-laws-7467576
Law Commission Consultation: Misconduct in public office
“To launch our consultation, we have published our first paper on Misconduct in Public Office.
Misconduct in Public Office: Issues Paper 1 – The Current Law is a background document that sets out the current law of misconduct in public office, highlighting problems that arise through areas of uncertainty, as well as gaps and overlaps with alternative offences.
We launched the first phase of our consultation with a symposium of eminent speakers and delegates, which coincided with the publication of Issues Paper 1 on 20 January 2016 (we have published a selection of tweets from the day). Our focus at this stage is on the current law and its problems. The aim of the paper and symposium is to provide us with an opportunity to stimulate informed debate on the problems identified, explore the options for reform and engage with practitioners and experts who deal with the offence. We seek responses to the questions set out in this background paper by 20 March 2016.
The second phase of consultation will begin later this spring with the publication of a paper exploring options for reform. A final report will be published in 2017.
Our project
Our reform objectives are to decide whether the existing offence of misconduct in public office should be abolished, retained, restated or amended and to pursue whatever scheme of reform is decided upon.
The legal concepts involved in the offence of misconduct in public office are highly technical and complex and not easily accessible to non-lawyers.
Furthermore there is often some confusion between what the law is and what it should be. The question of the appropriate boundaries of criminal liability for public officials is clearly a matter of broad public interest.
The offence and its problems
Misconduct in public office is a common law offence: it is not defined in any statute. It carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The offence requires that: a public officer acting as such; wilfully neglects to perform his duty and/or wilfully misconducts himself; to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder; without reasonable excuse or justification.
Historically the offence held public officers to account for their misconduct, where there were no other adequate ways of doing so. Nowadays such misconduct will usually amount to another, narrower and better defined, criminal offence.
The offence is widely considered to be ill-defined and has been subject to recent criticism by the government, the Court of Appeal, the press and legal academics.
Statistics suggest that more people are being accused of misconduct in public office while fewer of those accusations lead to convictions. One possible reason is that the lack of clear definition of the offence renders it difficult to apply.
We have identified a number of problems with the offence:
“Public office” lacks clear definition yet is a critical element of the offence. This ambiguity generates significant difficulties in interpreting and applying the offence.
The types of duty that may qualify someone to be a public office holder are ill-defined. Whether it is essential to prove a breach of those particular duties is also unclear from the case law.
An “abuse of the public’s trust” is crucial in acting as a threshold element of the offence, but is so vague that it is difficult for investigators, prosecutors and juries to apply.
The fault element that must be proved for the offence differs depending on the circumstances. That is an unusual and unprincipled position.
Although “without reasonable excuse or justification” appears as an element of the offence, it is unclear whether it operates as a free standing defence or as a definitional element of the offence.
Please contact us if you have any enquiries about this project.”
Why the “first past the post” voting system leads to 2 party states and gerrymandering
Damned leopards, gorillas and tigers making it so difficult for Owls!
Electoral Reform Society compiling interactive map of “rotten boroughs” – stick YOUR pin in it!
Rotten Boroughs – Tell us your story
One Party States. Uncontested seats. There’s something very wrong with local government in England and Wales.
Campaign background
Good local government depends on decent local democracy. But many of us are now living in Rotten Boroughs – unaccountable and unresponsive, where our votes don’t make a difference.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
You can help us win the argument for fair votes in England and Wales. Have you been let down by local democracy? Do you live in a Rotten Borough?
http://action.electoral-reform.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1754&ea.campaign.id=21160
Electoral Registration: a report on reform
A long but accessible and easily readable report by the Law Commission which our own Electoral Registration Officer will no doubt be reading closely in order to avoid the problems our district has encountered in the recent past.
“Are you registered to vote?”
Press release from EDDC (though we heard of this from a newsfeed, not EDDC itself):
“Council urges East Devon residents to join the National Voter Registration Drive – February 1 to 7 – and register to vote”
East Devon District Council wants to encourage anyone not yet registered to vote, to take advantage of National Voter Registration Drive #NVRD this week and go online now to register.
On Thursday 5 May 2016 voters in East Devon will go to the polls to elect a Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall. Anyone who isn’t registered to vote won’t be able to take part and have their say.
The deadline to register to vote in these elections is Monday 18 April 2016. While there is still time, it’s running out quickly. The good news is that it only takes a few minutes to register online at http://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote . It’s a chance to join the thousands of people across the UK being encouraged to register this week.
Mark Williams, Electoral Registration Officer for East Devon said:
Anyone not yet registered to vote should do so as soon as possible, so they can have their say on issues that affect their day-to-day lives. I would urge people living in East Devon to use National Voter Registration Drive to spread the message among family and friends, that it only takes a few minutes to complete the form and register to vote online.
Ben Brook, Head of Performance and English Regional Teams at the Electoral Commission, said:
National Voter Registration Drive exists because it’s important that anyone who’s eligible, but has not yet registered to vote, does so. It’s easy and quick to do online at http://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. Young people, students and people who move frequently are much less likely to be registered to vote so #NVRD is as important as ever.
Local residents can get a paper copy of the registration form by contacting the electoral registration office on 01395 517402.
East Devon Watch 