Our own Returning Officer, Mark Williams, shuns the limelight – perhaps he needs to be seen more in the right places at the right time …
Category Archives: Voting
The missing 6,000 voters, part 5,999 (a)
Advertised today in the lical press:
Electoral Registration Assistant 16,215 – 17,333
“This section is responsible for compiling the Electoral Register, which will include the new challenges presented by the transition to Individual Electoral Registration and also the delivery of elections held in East Devon”
Closing date: 19 September 2014
The “new challenges” are actually quite old, EDDC having known they needed to prepare for this for several years.
It asks for at least GCSE Grade 3 English, where one hopes that the successful candidate might avoid the phrase “delivery of elections held in East Devon” which makes it sound rather like a supermarket delivery of groceries!
Stable door … horses … bolting … let’s hope it’s not too late.
Those missing 6,000 voters …. again; canvasser pay details
EDDC is advertising for Electoral Registration Canvassers to work between 22 September 2014 and 28 November 2014 advertising the pay as £1.89 per signed-up voter plus a bonus of 25p for each voter if you get 95% of your list completed plus 45p per mile expenses. Hours will necessarily be anti-social if you are checking on people who work. The advertisement doesn’t say how many homes each canvasser will have to visit or how areas are divided up.
Applications online at eastdevon.gov.uk. Interview date: 15 September 2014
The missing 6,000 voters, part 5,990
Finally, after being alluded to in July 2014 EDDC is advertising for house to house canvassers to visit households not yet on the electoral roll. Interviews on 15 September 2014 so not in place till October 2014 when most councils have had them working for months.
We were promised 10 posts; wonder how many will be recruited?
The missing 6,000 voters: electoral registration for dummies
No, we haven’t forgotten that missing 6,000 voters in the East Devon area.
Last week, in answer to a question from a member of the public about how EDDC had failed to follow legal requirements to canvass homes where there had been no registration for the last three years, Chief Executive and Electoral Registration Officer Mark Williams said that we should not worry about it as we (i.e. he) will get there in the end. No mention of his failing to follow legal requirements, no mention of whether or not the 10 canvasssers have been appointed to try to catch up, no mention of how many of the (more than) 6,000 missing voters are now registered, no mention of the effect that the missing voters had on the recent European elections – just the statement that the end justifies the means. And we all know where that has got politicians in the past (though, of course, Mr Williams is not meant to be a politician he is meant to be a neutral civil servant).
Anyway, for Mr Williams and anyone else out there who wants to know how it SHOULD be done, the Electoral Commission has produced a handy guide as to when and how registration should be undertaken. Any chance anyone at EDDC will read it?
Here it is, so no excuses
Note: “The end justifies the means” was appropriately coined by the in(famous) Niccolo Machiavelli. Perhaps a few of his other sayings might be topical here:
“When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.”
“Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.”
“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
The missing 6,000 voters: a personal perspective from an EDA blog commentator
Paul Freeman, a regular commenter on the EDA blog, has sent in this blog entry which represents his personal view after asking questions of the district council at last week’s full council meeting:
“Mr Chairman, Councillors
I would like to make a statement and ask some questions relating to democracy in East Devon which is on today’s agenda.
It has come to light in the past few weeks that the Electoral Registration Officer for East Devon has deregistered at least 6,400 people in East Devon and possibly as many as 7,000 citizens from the Electoral register. This is equivalent to 1 in 15 of all voters in East Devon, In other words, of all the councillors and officers in the room today, the entire top-table has been disenfranchised. Or of the visitors, the public here, these three gentlemen behind me have lost their vote. It is a matter of public record that the Electoral Registration Officer for East Devon has failed to meet the standard set by the Electoral Commission on doorstep canvassing for the past three years in a row. In addition, last year the Electoral Registration Officer reported to the Electoral Commission a perfect score, in doorstep canvassing, i.e. he reported that the number of households not canvassed was zero, yet when the Electoral Commission looked into this further they decided that his performance was still below standard in this area.
1. Can the council assure us that this lack of performance was not, even indirectly, the cause of these citizens losing their vote?
2. Secondly, can the council please tell us whether mis-reporting his performance is a disciplinary offense against the Electoral Registration Officer?
3. Can the council please confirm whether the telephone canvassers that have been promised to be recruited, have indeed been recruited, yet?
And finally:
4. Is the council aware that as part of his activities to implement Individual Electoral Registration, that our ERO has already mislaid a further 900 voters in Budleigh Salterton?”
Leaving aside the appropriateness of the Chairman handing these questions to the ERO himself to answer (CEO Mark Williams) when they included questions about his own performance and possible disciplinary action …
The statement made by Mark Williams, EDDC CEO and ERO, probably says more about his own regard (or lack of it) for the voters of East Devon than any number of assertions by members of the public such as myself:
“Well I will answer on behalf of the council.
I think first of all, Mr Freeman, I recommend that you double check your facts.
The second thing I’d say is that as members know from a report I took to the Cabinet Meeting, that we are transitioning from an Electoral Registration System that the government has said is unfit for purpose.
And the third thing I’d say to you is that in any major change process it is not where you start from that counts but where you end-up.”
(You can listen to the question and the ERO’s answers in the first 3 minutes of the recording of the meeting available on the councils web site at http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/council_agendas_and_mins.htm .
Disregarding that he didn’t actually answer ANY of the questions asked …
And leaving aside that he effectively denied the facts I stated (which have been discussed in depth on this blog) and which I can back up with citations to Electoral Commission documents and to documents from the ERO himself released in response to a Freedom of Information request…
And disregarding his misrepresentation of the old electoral system which was certainly fit for purpose for several decades, and is being changed only to ensure that voters do not lose their registration if the head of household refuses to add them to the form (a rare but regrettable occurrence)…
The key point is that I am sure that all of the 6,400 – 7,000 deregistered voters who were unable to vote in the European Elections will be heartened to know that the ERO believes that it doesn’t really matter that they missed this recent election because they will eventually be reregistered and able to vote in some future election – maybe in time for the May 2015 local council elections, or maybe some future election after that. Does Mark Williams think that elections are like busses – if you missed this one, never mind because there will be another one along in a minute or two?
In the light of this public statement, I again call upon the East Devon Electoral Registration Officer, Mark Williams, to resign his post of EDDC CEO (which includes his role as ERO) because his position is (even more) untenable.
When is “the public interest” not the public interest – a confusing conundrum when applied to our missing 6,000 voters
An exchange between the Chairman of the Parliamentary Constitutional Reform Committee, Graham Allen MP and the Chief Executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators on 1 May 2014 regarding Electoral Returning Officers (EROs) failing to complete house-to-house canvassing [recall it has been confirmed by Chris Ruane MP of the same committee that
EDDC’s ERO, Chief Executive Mark Williams failed to carry out house-to-house surveys in 2011, 2012 and 2013]:
Q282 Mr Turner: Are we speaking of a criminal offence or a civil offence?
John Turner: Which?
Mr Turner: The failure to do what Chris Ruane has asked should be done.
John Turner: There is a section in the Representation of the People Act 1983 that makes it a breach of official duty for a registration officer not to do that and follow the law.
Q283 Mr Turner: Does that mean a police officer would be handling that or a civil matter?
John Turner: No, it is a criminal matter, a criminal offence. It carries a penalty. I can’t recollect what it is offhand, but it is definitely a criminal offence. What I should also tell you is that I have been doing this for some long time now and I have never known anybody to be prosecuted for it.
Q284 Mr Turner: I am just wondering whether it would help if it were drawn to the attention of the local police officer.
John Turner: We go down an interesting route here. Things have happened where there have been investigations by the police—the police are only the investigating body in this sense—and it always ends up at the door of the Crown Prosecution Service and we get into matters where we start talking about public interest and decisions to prosecute. That would take us another five hours I fear, Chair, so—
Q285 Chris Ruane: Is it in the public interest to have 6 million people and the poorest people in the country off the electoral register? Is it in the public interest or not?
John Turner: That is a different question from the public interest to prosecute, but what I am saying is, in answer to your question, there is already on the statute book an offence of breach of official duty. It is certainly not within my bailiwick to decide how that should be enforced but it is there. It sits there.
The missing 6,000 voters: advice issued to MPs
This included the information that MPs should have asked for below. You may wish to ask your MP to show you what they did BEFORE we brought this matter to public attention on 30 June 2014:
The advice:
….. “If you haven’t done so already, getting in touch with your local Electoral Registration Officer could be a useful step towards supporting registration activity and finding out more about any targeted work happening within your constituency. You may want to ask your Electoral Registration Officer(s) about their engagement strategy and implementation plan.
What the picture is for your area
The results of the confirmation exercise, once available, will show how many entries were green (i.e. they matched with the details on the DWP database), how many were amber (i.e. they were a partial match) and how many were red (i.e. there was no match). What were the match rates for:
all electors?
attainers?
postal voters?
Which groups of people/which wards have lower match rates and therefore pose the greatest challenge? How has that picture changed since the dry run of the confirmation data matching process?
How many existing postal voters have failed to match and are therefore at risk of losing their absent vote?
How are you using local records, including to boost match rates and confirm people onto the new register, and to identify and target new electors?
How activity is being targeted
Can you talk me through your public engagement strategy and implementation plan?
What are the key stages of the work you are doing between now and 1 December 2015 (in England and Wales)/2 March 2015 (in Scotland) to engage with existing and new electors, and when are they taking place (including, for example, when the write-out will begin; when you will be sending reminders and visiting individuals/households?)
How do you plan to target attainers to maximise the number of eligible 16 and 17 year olds included on the electoral register?
Do you have sufficient resources to deliver your plans effectively?
How can I support your work using my local intelligence and links into the community?
How can I stay updated on registration activity in my area?”
Proof that our MPs knew about EDDC’s electoral roll fiasco
Here is the proof that the Electoral Commission wrote to those MPs whose constituencies did not carry out the required house to house canvassing for the electoral register in 2013. We know from this document that only 6% of councils failed to do this and not only was EDDC one of these councils but it had also not performed these enquiries in 2011 and 2012.
Extract:
“The reasons given by each ERO for not carrying out house-to-house enquiries with all non-responding households are provided within the Commission’s report. The Commission has written specifically to those hon. Members whose ERO(s) have failed to meet the standard and it will soon write to all hon. Members to update them regarding the progress of the transition to IER. This update will include suggested questions which hon. Members may wish to put to their local EROs regarding what practices they follow, and propose to follow in future, in order to keep their electoral registers as complete and accurate as possible.”
Source:
Click to access 6.SPEAKERS-Committee-Electroal-Commission.pdf
Westminster MP adds disquieting information on the missing 6,000 voters
A correspondent has sent an extract from a letter from an MP (Chris Ruane, a member of Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee, see post below of 7 July 2014) after he contacted him on the subject of EDDC’s missing 6,000 voters. It makes interesting reading:
“Thank you very much for your e-mail, and your very thorough research.
The example of East Devon is one that I highlight in my work, and also includes West Devon and Mid Devon. On the ERO’s attachment, I have listed all the ERO’s who have failed the compulsory Performance Standard Three to conduct door to door visits, as you mentioned, and you will see that East Devon has failed it three times. …
… On the issue of registration, with the changes to Individual Electoral Registration now in force, keeping tabs on the ERO is more crucial. Last year, every local authority did a test run (confirmation dry run) of comparing their electoral register with the Department for Work and Pensions database. Because to register to vote under IER, you need a National Insurance number, those on the register now have to be checked that they are exactly who they are. So the DWP matching was a way to do this. Local authorities were also advised to do a similar match with databases they have (such as council tax records). Only a quarter did this in the dry run. I have attached the list of those who did to this local data matching, and East Devon is not on there. This was their opportunity to test the system before it went live, as it has done now.
On the issue of an FOI request, this may seem odd, but the ERO does not fall under FOI legislation. I found this out whilst doing my own research, and those ERO’s I knew who weren’t complying, responded to say that they didn’t have to answer. I have raised this with the committee. If you get the same response, please do let me know [the correspondent has confirmed that he did get the same response from EDDC].
Recently I asked a question at Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions, and Greg Clark is now looking into those councils who fail in their duties.
Please let me know how you get on with East Devon.”
An attachment provided by Mr Ruane shows that East Devon has not undertaken the required doorstep canvassing since 2011, and that East Devon did not take part in the very important IT systems dry run for the Individual Electoral Registration process.
Those missing 6,000 voters in East Devon – how do we compare with other councils? Pretty badly
Firstly, it is a missing 6,300 voters in East Devon and the worse council of all (Taunton Deane, see below) managed to lose 8,800 voters.
This comes from a very interesting table on page 10 of the Electoral Commission’s report of June 2014
which identifies East Devon District Council as one of the worse 17 councils in the country for not dealing with the transition from the old system of voter registration to the new one.
The table shows the 10 local authorities with the largest decrease in elecorate. Taunton Deane was worst – they managed to lose 8.8% of the electorate between 2012 and 2014 followed by Allerdale (7.9%), Maidstone (7.7%), Northampton (7.4%), Isles of Scilly UA (6.5%), Newham (6.4%), East Devon (6.3%), Wellingborough (6.0%), Tonbridge and Malling (5.9%) and Hastings( 5.8%).
Those missing 6,000 voters haven’t moved to Mid-Devon
Remember, that for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 East Devon’s voting population remained stable at around 104,000 and then plummeted in 2014 to around 98,000.
In Mid-Devon it seems that no such dramatic change occured:
The missing 6,000 voters – update
Our MP doesn’t seem to understand that our council was amongst only 17 failing to fulfil its obligations. Something more than “Well, it doesn’t seem that bad” may be called for.
After all, those missing voters just might make the difference between him being elected and not elected next time.
And where is the quote from the person responsible for all the decisions that led to EDDC being in this situation, its CEO and Returning Officer, Mark Williams?
The missing 6,000 voters: EDDC responds
Question: the number of electors was stable in 2011, 2012 and 2013 at around 104,000 then it plummeted this year by 6,000. EDDC was supposed to arrange to physically visit properties which had not registered but someone made the decision not to do so. Who? Why? Where is this decision documented?
EDDC makes light of the fact that it is named by the Electoral Commission as in the bottom 6% of councils for registration. Were councillors aware of this before the May 2015 European elections? If not, why not? If so, why was there no call for this to be remedied before that election?
The missing 6,000 voters – EDDC is in the worst 6% of councils in the country for voter registration!
Oh, and Hugo Swire was told about this at the time and it may have affected the European election results – all confirmed below:
June 2014:
… The Commission’s detailed analysis of the registration data has identified that in addition to the 5 EROs (for Mid Devon, Taunton Deane, Torridge, West Devon and West Somerset) who reported that they did not meet performance standard 3 – the house-to-house enquiry standard – in 2013, there are a further 17 EROs who did not ensure that during 2013 all non-responding properties were canvassed in person.
These are the EROs for: Broxbourne Borough Council; Castle Point Borough Council; Ceredigion County Council; Durham County Council; East Devon District Council; Gwynedd County Council; Kingston-upon-Hull City Council; Maldon District Council; Mid Sussex District Council; Northumberland County Council; North Devon District Council; North Dorset District Council; North East Lincolnshire Council; North Warwickshire Borough Council; Scarborough Borough Council; Sedgemoor District Council and South Staffordshire Council
Click to access 6.SPEAKERS-Committee-Electroal-Commission.pdf
AND
the same link confirms that European elections could have been affected:
1.16 An added risk is that the period between March and June 2014 coincides with elections to the European Parliament and to the majority of local authorities in England (including London and metropolitan boroughs), which will mean that there is next to no capacity in local elections teams to deal with any remedial activity that may be recommended.
The March 31 2014 report referred to above is here:
Click to access Readiness-for-the-transition-to-IER-Progress-Report-March-2014.pdf
and its later update here:
Click to access Analysis-of-electoral-registration-data-for-Great-Britain-2013.pdf
with this golden nugget:
East Devon District Council
“East Devon originally planned for house-to-house enquiries to be carried out as a part of the canvass, but none were conducted in practice. Their plans were later adapted to use telephone canvassing as a first step for non- responding properties, and the details of 39% of such properties were confirmed through this mechanism. The overall canvass response rate for East Devon was 95%.
East Devon’s IER implementation plan indicates that they intend to recruit canvassers to undertake the necessary house-to-house enquiries as part of the 2014 write-out and canvass. We will continue to monitor their progress through the transition to ensure this is delivered in practice.”
And here is a briefing sent to all MPs about what they should be do ing:
Click to access IER-Parliamentary-Brief-July-2014-PDF.pdf
Isn’t it odd, too, that many of the worst- performing councils are near to us!
Closing the stable door – hopefully just in time?
Thanks to the EDA investigation, EDDC now has a “Register to Vote” link at the top of its home page on the internet!
Quick work … now let’s see it find those missing thousands!
The missing 6,000 (some of) the evidence
Electoral Commission give evidence on voter engagement
Is East Devon one of the 6% of local authorities failing to reach targets for registration? We must await the response to a Freedom of Information request (see below)
It’s official: MILLIONS of missing voters is an omnishambles of the first order
In fact, as I write, there is a Parliamentary Select Committee grilling the Electoral Commission on Voter Engagement in the UK – MILLIONS of voters appear to have been missed due to changes being made to how voters are registered – how convenient as many of these voters will be those who might vote for minority parties and it could drastically affect the results of the next General Election.
Write to Chris Ruane, MP for Vale of Clwyd, if you want to tell this commission what you think – he’s the MP who seems to have a total grip on exactly what a scandal this is.
Currently they are talking about the performance of Electoral Registration Officers.
Fabian Hamilton, MP for Leeds North is also asking some very pertinent questions on this aspect of the scandal. Apparently, it is the responsibility of EROs to arrange house to house visits and some 6% of local authorities are not doing this as some lack skills and capacity and because they don’t understand the law! They are even talking about a “special measures” scenario for such situations …
http://www.leedsne.co.uk/contact_information
There is a way(apparently) of highlighting where Electoral Registration Officers are underperforming!
They are also covering electoral fraud: 30% of people believe that fraud is taking place. Phil Thompson, Research and Evaluation Manager of the Electoral Commission says it is hard to find the true figure … er, but that’s his job! There are 16 local authorities which are “at risk” and most likely to happen at local government elections usually in specific wards.
Hello, EDDC Electoral Registration Officer (Mark Williams, solicitor and CEO?).
Missing voters – a Freedom of Information request
Good to see that one of our readers has put in a Freedom of Information request to East Devon District Council about the missing 6,000 plus voters missing from the electoral roll:
More than 700 homes now built in Cranbrook – are their residents on the electoral roll?
From an article about Cranbrook in the Mid Devon Star:
… “It is exactly two years since the first turf was cut on site at Cranbrook and in Phase One of the town there are now over 700 completed homes, 276 children in the first primary school, a half hourly bus service and a well-used community centre.”
One wonders if all these residents are reflected in the electoral roll.
This statement comes from an article in which EDDC Councillor Andrew Moulding boasts about how many of Cranbrook’s properties have been bought under the Help to Buy schemes. However, he neglects to inform us how these purchasers will fare if there is an interest rate rise.
Phase Two of Cranbrook will see a further 2,380 homes being built.
http://www.middevonstar.co.uk/news/11311564.Cranbrook_is__Help_to_Buy__hotspot/
East Devon Watch 