APPENDIX 1
Memorandum by the Home Office
H: The Conduct of the poll
Section 2: The ballot
Franking of ballot papers
Current Legislation
8.32 Under rule 37 of the parliamentary election
rules set out in Schedule 1 of the Representation of the People
Act 1983 (rule 31 of the local elections rules) as soon as the
elector has been identified in the electoral register, the polling
clerks will give that elector a ballot paper stamped with the
official mark, which under rule 20 must perforate the paper.
8.33 Polling station staff are provided with
special equipment to do this. No other mark must be put upon the
paper by the clerks. This procedure dates back to the introduction
of secret ballots in the Ballot Act 1872 and is a safeguard against
the smuggling in of counterfeit or illegally acquired ballot papers,
either at the polling station or before the results of the count
are announced.
8.34 The official mark must be kept secret and
an interval of not less than seven years must intervene between
the use of the same mark at elections for the same electoral area.
The official mark used for ballot papers issued for postal voting
is different from that used at the same election for those voting
in person at polling stations.
8.35 Under rule 47, any ballot paper which does
not bear the official mark is voided and not counted. The returning
officer must write the word "rejected" on the paper.
He must also add the words "rejection objected to" if
an objection is made by a counting agent to the decision. A list
must be prepared showing the number of ballot papers rejected
for want of an official mark. Table 9 records the number of ballots
voided for want of the official mark at elections since 1979.
Table 10 provides comparative data on the total number of votes
cast at those elections.
Table 9: Ballot Papers Rejected for Want of the
Official Mark 1979-97
|
| General Election | UK
| England | Wales | Scotland
| Northern
Ireland |
|
| 1979 | 3,282
| 2,034 | 293 | 804
| 151 |
| 1983 | 2,819
| 1,698 | 166 | 709
| 246 |
| 1987 | 2,408
| 1,463 | 76 | 599
| 270 |
| 1992 | 2,593
| 1,381 | 123 | 660
| 429 |
| 1997 | 2,169*
| 1,238* | 124 | 482
| 325 |
|
Tendered Votes
8.36 If a person, representing himself to be
a particular elector named on the register, and not named in the
absent voters' list, or a particular person named in the list
of proxies as proxy for an elector and not entitled to vote by
post, applies for a ballot paper after another person has voted
as that elector or proxy, the applicant shall, upon duly answering
the questions referred to in rule 35(1) of the parliamentary elections
rules, including that rule as applied by the European Regulations;
rule 29(10) of the Principal Areas election rules and the Parishes
and Communities elections rules, be entitled to mark a ballot
paper in the same manner as any other voter (rule 40(1) of the
parliamentary elections rules, including that rule as applied
by the European Regulations; rule 34(1) of the Principal Areas
elections rules and of the Parishes and Communities elections
rules).
8.37 However, such a ballot paper must be of
a colour differing from the other ballot papers and is called
a ``tendered ballot paper''. Instead of being put into the ballot
box, it must be given to the presiding officer and endorsed by
him with the name of the voter and his number in the register
of electors, and set aside in a separate packet (rule 40(2); rule
34(2) of the above rules). The voter's name and number on the
register or, in the case of a proxy, the elector's number on the
register, must be entered on a list called ``the tendered votes
list'' (rule 40(3) and (4); rule 34(3) and (4) of the above rules).
8.38 If, after investigation, it can be satisfactorily
proved that personation took place, the vote of the person personating
will be struck off, and the vote of the person tendering will
be added.
|
| General Election | UK
('000s)
| England
('000s) | Wales
('000s)
| Scotland
('000s) | Northern Ireland
('000s)
|
|
| 1979 | 31,221
| 25,972 | 1,637 | 2,917
| 696 |
| 1983 | 30,671
| 25,473 | 1,609 | 2,825
| 765 |
| 1987 | 32,530
| 27,134 | 1,698 | 2,968
| 730 |
| 1992 | 33,511
| 28,064 | 1,749 | 2,913
| 785 |
| 1997** | 31,613
| 30,822* | |
| 791 |
|
** Unconfirmed figures for 1997
* Great Britain—separate figures not available
for England, Wales and Scotland
Marking electoral registration numbers to ballot
paper counterfoils
8.39 At the delivery of the ballot paper the
presiding officer or poll clerk must call out the elector's name
and number, as stated in the register, and must make a mark in
the margin against the elector's name in the register, and, in
the case of a proxy, also against his name in the list of proxies,
to denote that he has received a ballot paper, but without showing
the particular ballot paper which he has received (rule 37(1)
of the parliamentary elections rules, as amended by para 81 of
Schedule 4 to the Act of 1985, including that rule as applied
by the European Regulations; rule 31(1) of the Principal Areas
elections rules and of the Parishes and Communities elections
rules).
8.40 While this is being done, the presiding
officer (or poll clerk) must mark (ie write) the elector's number
on the counterfoil and stamp the ballot paper with the official
mark.
Issues commonly arising
The requirement to mark every ballot paper
with the official mark should be discontinued
8.41 Returning Officers are acutely aware of
the embarrassment which may result from a failure to endorse a
ballot paper with the official mark and of the implications for
an election petition. Each will have their own method for ensuring
that polling clerks are fully instructed to keep this human error
to a minimum. Election petitions, because of papers disallowed
on these grounds, occur very infrequently and only on those occasions
when those votes which have been rejected could have affected
the result of election in question.
8.42 The Home Affairs Committee considered this
during the 1982-83 session of Parliament and concluded that the
official mark was superfluous in the prevention and detection
of electoral offences and recommended an end to its use. The Government
maintained that some safeguard against forged ballot papers was
still required. It considered whether the requirement for an official
mark could not be replaced by ensuring that ballot papers were
printed on specially watermarked paper. Although technically feasible,
this would prevent the returning officer from knowing at a glance
whether a particular ballot paper should or should not be counted.
Tendered votes should be counted unless
the returning officer has reason to believe the tendered vote
is unlawful
8.43 The tender vote system is intended to provide
a safeguard against double voting at an election. The Home Office
receives a small number of complaints at each election that the
failure to count a tendered vote except in the rare instance of
a case of proved personation effectively disenfranchises the elector
voting using a tendered vote.
Marking an elector's registration number
on the counterfoil means that the vote is not secret and should
be discontinued
8.44 The requirement to mark the counterfoil
recognises the need to counter threats to the integrity of the
ballot and to provide a means to give effect to any High Court
decision that a personated vote should be discounted and to allow
a tendered vote counted in its place. Vote tracing has been consistently
criticised as a breach of the secrecy of the ballot, most recently
in a dissenting set of recommendations by Liberty in the report
Ballot Secrecy, published jointly with the Electoral Reform
Society in 1997.
Section 3 : publication of results
Mixing the ballot papers at Parliamentary and Local
Government elections
8.45 The returning officer and his staff must
not count the votes given on any ballot paper until the ballot
papers from two or more ballot boxes have been mixed (rule 45(1A)
of the parliamentary elections rules, as inserted by Schedule
4 to the 1985 Act; rule 39(2) of the Principal Areas elections
rules and the Parishes and Communities elections rules). In the
case of postal ballot papers, they must be mixed together with
the ballot papers from at least one ballot box used at the polling
stations.
8.46 The effect of this requirement is that counting
of the votes cannot be commenced until at least two ballot boxes
have been received. It also means that the contents of at least
one ballot box must be kept back to be mixed with the contents
of the last ballot box that is received.
8.47 If in the process of verifying the ballot
paper account ballot papers are made up into bundles, the requirement
of mixing ballot papers from different boxes is probably met if
bundles from different boxes are mixed together.
Mixing the ballot papers at a European Parliamentary
election
8.48 At a European Parliamentary election, other
than where the poll is taken together with the poll at some other
election, the returning officer is required to open the packets
made by the verifying officer and to mix together all of the ballot
papers received (rule 45(1) of the parliamentary elections rules,
as substituted by Schedule 1 to the European Regulations).
8.49 The requirement to mix the contents of two
or more ballot boxes before counting ensures that the vote at
a single polling station cannot be identified and is intended
to support the secrecy of the ballot. It does not prevent counts
being undertaken at satellite counting centres at a local election,
for example, at a ward level where there is more than one polling
station within the ward. The effect is however to encourage counting
at a central location in most instances.
Issues commonly arising
ballot papers should be counted at the lowest
unit level, in the polling station, immediately after close of
the poll
8.50 Ballot papers are counted at the polling
station in a number of constituencies. This encourages the early
announcement of results and reduces the costs of a central count.
The political parties and those academics/professionals who study
electoral results in detail would like to have the votes from
each ballot box counted separately which could show precisely
where political support is either strong or weak and aid planning
for future election campaigns. A change in current procedures
on the mixing of ballot papers before counting begins would require
primary legislation.
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