Course focus
Essential Guide to Overview & Scrutiny Committees
- Date:
- 23 May 2012
- Venue:
- DLA Piper LLP, London
- CPD:
- 4.5
News & events
"VICTORIAN", "ARCHAIC" - WHAT NOW FOR BRITAIN'S OUTDATED VOTING SYSTEM?
Polling booths running out of voting papers, doors being closed on those exercising their democratic right, reports of under age citizens successfully exercising "theirs" and postal ballot fraud. If you didn’t know otherwise, you could have woken up on May 7 thinking you were witnessing tales from a general election in some rather suspect third world country.
Serious issues, serious concerns - but what do some of the events surrounding the United Kingdom's 2010 general election (and it may not be the year’s last) mean for the country's returning officers and their staff.
"Whatever people may think we have a system that is well past its sell-by date. It's archaic, it's Victorian and everyone struggles to make it work in the 21st century," says David Monks, chief executive of Huntingdonshire District Council, chair of the SOLACE elections panel and a man who has (at the time of writing) done a full round of interviews for a media - and a 24-hour rolling news agenda - that demands immediate answers often with little in the way of logical thinking.
"It is a system unlikely to change soon, with several people having been caught out this time and - with at least a couple of returning officers having to make public apologies - we go back, yet again, to the huge responsibility placed on these people, the political and media pressures and, crucially, the need for training."
The Electoral Commission has responded quickly with the announcement of a review. David Monks welcomes this but with caution.
"It is clear mistakes were made in the run up to – and on the night of – May 6. And we hear of at least 60 cases of potential fraud relating to postal votes. However, we have told the Electoral Commission that while we are prepared to participate in a constructive review we will not participate in a witch hunt."
There were examples of "best practice" on election night. Officials in Lewisham, south east London, brought a queue of voters indoors and issued them with voting papers prior to the legally-stipulated
10.00 pm deadline and before closing doors. At the opposite end of the spectrum, others who chose to divide a line of voters into students and residents would appear to have acted in a way that really does defy logic.
"No matter how experienced the team, mistakes do get made – and people do strange things when under pressure," adds David. "I think we always knew this would be a close election so those pressures were undoubtedly magnified in some constituencies and at certain counts.
"Given that we have a system that isn’t fit for purpose and with little prospect of change, the key things we have to concentrate on are training and communication. We are now likely to be facing new challenges such as a referendum - something we haven’t had for 35 years and something that will bend the current system and flog it a bit more.
"There are rules and there are laws governing our electoral process. Returning officers and others involved in that process have huge responsibilities. We have a media that in my view is often part of the problem and we have the heated debate around whether to count on the night or on the Friday. But at the end of the day, or night, we must stick to the rules, we must know those rules, returning officers and teams must communicate and, when in doubt, people must ask for advice.
"One thing is for certain: the events of the past week will result in a more inquisitive and challenging electorate – and rightly so. We ignore that and the responsibility to our colleagues at the coal face at our peril."