In 2013 Electoral Registration Officers were issued with new instructions about how they should register voters – the annual canvass was postponed so that the new way of registering voters (individually and not by head of household) would be as accurate as possible.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/794/contents/made

and

The Electoral Registration (Disclosure of Electoral Registers) Regulations 2013

The latter included the following – and yet our Electoral Registration still managed to lose more than 6,000 voters from the electoral roll that year:

… “5. It is particularly important that a comprehensive canvass is conducted in 2013-14 in order to achieve as complete and accurate registers as possible ahead of the transition to IER. This will help to maximise the number of electors who can be ‘confirmed’ during the transition, which will in turn help to reduce the number of electors that EROs will need to follow up with and invite to register individually.

6. As always, EROs will need to ensure that they have robust plans in place for the annual canvass process and should also review their risk registers to ensure that any additional or different risks and related mitigating action have been identified and are reflected.”

…
9. Although the timing of the 2013 canvass has changed, the processes to be followed will be the same as in any other year. EROs are still legally required to take all steps that are necessary for the purposes of maintaining the electoral register, including:

• sending more than once to any address the form to be used for the canvass
• making on one or more occasions house-to-house enquiries
• making contact by such other means as the ERO thinks appropriate with persons who do not have an entry in the register
• inspecting any records held by any person which the ERO is permitted to inspect
• providing training to persons under their direction or control in connection with the carrying out of the duty

…15. Once decisions have been taken as to when and how the house-to-house enquiry part of their canvass will be carried out, EROs should establish how many canvassers will be needed and when, and put in place plans to ensure that sufficient staff can be recruited, trained and supervised to carry out house-to-house enquiries. EROs’ plans should also reflect how, when and on what basis canvassers will be paid.

16. EROs should bear in mind that existing or experienced canvassers may not be available for part or all of the revised canvass period or willing to work at the required times, and that they may therefore need to undertake additional recruitment exercises, targeting new or different groups. The timing of recruitment should be planned to take into account the likely increased demand for seasonal and temporary staff in other local businesses in the run-up to and during the festive period.

17. Any additional or different risks arising from carrying out house-to-house enquiries at a different time should be identified in the ERO’s risk register and appropriate mitigating action put in place. This might include, for example, risks associated with canvassing in bad weather or when there are limiteddaylight hours, and how these can be addressed through canvasser training and supervision.

…27. EROs should take steps to make local political parties and elected representatives aware of the changed register publication date at an early stage.

On-going registration work following publication of the register
28. The duty to maintain the register and undertake the steps set out in Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (as amended) appliesthroughout the year and is not altered by the postponement of the 2013 canvass. Continuing registration work following the publication of the revised registers in early 2014 will enable EROs to ensure that they have carried out all of the necessary steps by the time of the scheduled 2014 polls, which means that the register used for the 2014 polls will be as up to date as possible, and will also help to maximise the number of electors who are successfully confirmed during the transition to IER, thus reducing the amount of follow-up work that EROs will be required to do to contact those who have not been confirmed and invite them to register.

After boasting to the Parliamentary Select Committee on voter engagement that his way of tracking down missing voters was far superior to the required door to door canvassing done everywhere else (by telephoning missing voters instead – always assuming you know their landline or mobile numbers) Mark Williams has now recruited a large team of canvassers to do the job.

Wonder what caused the change …..!

http://new.eastdevon.gov.uk/news/2014/10/home-visits-aim-to-boost-number-of-residents-registered-to-vote/

Electoral Ommission

A really hard-hitting report about the failure of the Electoral Commission to get to grips with administrative bungling, fraud and blatent “looking the other way” to avoid responsibility. This 60 page report makes frightening reading about a subject we already find worrying enough with a Chief Executive who reports to himself not being at all worried that he lost 6,000 plus voters at the European Elections and finding Parliamentary scrutiny about it an irritation.

Fortunately, he does not have to worry about local scrutiny as the Overview and Scrutiny committee majority party members agreed to do what he said and refuse to deal with the matter – on the casting vote of its majority party Chairman.

Here is its introduction:

“This study reviews progress seven years after the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s 2007 Report and poses five main questions:

How inaccurate is the electoral register? To what extent is administrative failure responsible for any inaccuracies that occur?

What is the extent of voting fraud in the UK?

Has the Electoral Commission implemented the main recommendation of the
Committee on Standards in Public Life, that the Electoral Commission should focus on administering elections rather than policymaking and on promoting participation?

Are the delays being considered by the Electoral Commission in implementing individual voter registration and in introducing the requirement for voter identification at polling stations justified and acceptable?

Are measures being taken by the Cabinet Office to improve the accuracy of the electoral registers for the May 2015 General Election adequate?

The four main conclusions of this report are:

The administration of elections in the UK remains dangerously inefficient and seriously open to fraud.

There remains within the various bodies responsible for electoral administration a culture of complacency and denial.

The Electoral Commission has taken too few meaningful steps to address the recommendation of the Committee on Standards in Public Life that it focus on its regulatory role.

There is an emerging danger of partisan divisions between the two main political parties about whether or not to tolerate this situation. Too often, a bogus dilemma has been cited between the aims of encouraging voting by members of socially disadvantaged groups and guarding against fraud.

Too little has changed since the Committee on Standards in Public Life published its report into the Electoral Commission in January 2007.4 The main change between 2007 and 2014 is that the headline statistics show that the problems of inaccuracy in the electoral registers, already serious in 1981 and worse in 2007, have continued to amplify.

Good electoral administration is a regulatory matter requiring determined administrative action. Yet the bodies responsible for such administration – local government authorities, the Cabinet Office (currently responsible for electoral matters at central government level), and the Electoral Commission – have too often failed to act. It is too easy to blame sociological factors and voter disengagement for what are administrative shortcomings.”

Source: http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/publications/electoral%20omission.pdf

Following Mark Williams’ statements to the Parliamentary Committee on Monday (13 Oct), the following Freedom of Information request has  been submitted to EDDC.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/conduct_of_the_may_22_2014_local?nocache=incoming-573167#incoming-573167

For a reminder of what was said when MPs questioned Mr Williams about his performance as East Devon’s Electoral Registration Officer, click here:  http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=16033

That’s the headline  of ‘From the editor’s chair’ in today’s View from Sidmouth, (www.viewfromonline.co.uk  Tuesday, October 14th 2014, page 3).

The piece begins, ‘If I was a district councillor in East Devon I think I might be asking a pertinent question or two about why elected members had no previous knowledge that chief executive Mark Williams had been summoned before a Government select committee. ‘

It goes on, ..’I have some sympathy with the view expressed by experienced Ottery St Mary councillor Roger Giles when he said:”I would have thought that it might just have been of passing interest to the members of EDDC”, noting that in his 19 years of service he could not remember the chief executive being invited to meet with such an august body as the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee on Voter Engagement in the UK. ‘

Then, referring to the East Devon Alliance as ‘a pressure group which rarely shies away from rattling a few cages at Knowle’, the editorial points out that ‘The matter was first raised by (EDA member) Paul Freeman, who made ‘the alarming claim that 6,000 names had gone missing from the electoral roll in east Devon before the European elections’ , and that Mr Freeman’s question about it to Full Council in July  is said to have had “an arrogant brush off” by Mr Williams.

‘Mr. Freeman did not let the matter rest and maintains that Mr Williams had been invited to Westminster to “explain himself”.

As to be expected , the communications department of EDDC put a very different spin on it. They say Mr Williams had been invited in his capacity as returning officer for East Devon “to give evidence on voter engagement in rural areas”. ‘

The View from editor sums up as follows:  ‘A great deal of council business is delegated to unelected officers and that often means the flow of information to councillors, and indeed the public, leaves much to be desired.  Roger Giles, somewhat tongue in cheek, commented: “Have I missed something? Clearly he had—like the rest of us.’

 24 September 2014

The following response was received to a Freedom of Information request:

“The current position is that 2 canvassers have been appointed but ideally the Council requires a minimum of 10 to ensure that the work can be done as effectively as possible. We are therefore re-advertising the positions from next week (week beginning 29th September) with a view to recruiting more Canvassers. Canvassing will commence from the week beginning 27th October.”

Source: http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/09/24/the-missing-6000-voters-update-not-good-news/

7 October 2014

an email went out to all town and parish clerks in East Devon (and presumably to all internal EDDC staff) – coincidentally this is the date on the written evidence to the Parliamentary Select Committee from Mark Williams.

Source: http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/10/13/eddc-appears-to-be-still-recruting-canvassers-writes-eda-chairman-paul-arnott/

On 14 October 2014 at the Parliamentary Committee on Voter engagement, Mr Williams was asked if all canvassers were now in post. He said YES. On that same day he sent out an urgent appeal to town and parish clerks to try to find additional canvassers as soon as possible to start work on 28 October 2014.

Source: http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/09/24/the-missing-6000-voters-update-not-good-news/

13 October 2014

when asked if all canvassers had now been recruited, Mr Williams said Yes.

Source: http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/political-and-constitutional-reform-committee/voter-engagement-in-the-uk/oral/14118.html

14 October 2014

We learn from the Express and Echo website today that in all there are 25 canvassers who will start work on 28 October 2014.

“East Devon now has a pool of 25 canvassers, who will carry out household visits between 28 October and 28 November this year. The majority of those appointed have resulted from an internal advertisement among EDDC staff.”

Source: http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/East-Mid-Devon-district-council-chief-executives/story-23153767-detail/story.html

Anyone sniff the smell of panic and the sound of stable doors being bolted somewhere?

Source:

http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/political-and-constitutional-reform-committee/voter-engagement-in-the-uk/oral/14118.html