Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Written Evidence

Memorandum by Sir Howard Bernstein, Chief Executive, Manchester City Council (PVF 19)

GENERAL

  1.   Did you experience problems because the Government was slow in publishing the necessary statutory instruments?

  Yes.

  2.   Were problems caused by the very short time scale between close of nominations and the need to deliver postal voting documents to electors?

  Yes.

  3.   Earlier pilots had been self selecting—ie those who were keen and had the resources volunteered. Did the fact that all-postal ballots were mandatory for these elections cause problems with skills and resources?

  Yes.

  4.   Have you received/reported any allegations of fraud?

  No.

PRINTING AND DISSEMINATION

  5.   Was there sufficient printing capacity to cope with all-postal elections?

  Yes, Just.

  6.   Did any of the ballot papers require re-printing? If so, how many and why?

  No, OPT2VOTE did not have this problem.

  7.   Do you have any comments to make on the performance of the Royal Mail?

  Mailers—poor Ballot packs—excellent.

  8.   How many ballot papers did you:

(a)  deliver by hand—None.

(b)  collect by hand?—5.

  9.   How many electors do you estimate did not receive ballot papers:

(a)  by polling day—25-17 re-issued.

(b)  the day before—Unknown.

(c)  5 days before?—Unknown.

VOTING PRACTICALITIES AND RETURNS

  10.   Are you aware of any practical difficulties experienced by voters, as a result of:

(a)

the need for a signed witness declaration—Single/elderly had problems.

(b)

the dimensions of the ballot envelopes—NO.

(c)

complex and unclear instructions?—156 required assistance at ADPs.

  11.   How many and what percentage of ballot papers:

(a)

arrived back too late to be counted—105(0.1%)—14 June 2004.

(b)

were not counted because of errors in completion of the ballot paper or the witness declarations?

  What percentage were these of the total votes were cast?

718(0.78%)—invalids;

257(0.28%)—spolits.

  12.   Did all-postal voting increase turnout?

  Yes—Local from 20.4% to 39.2%; European from 16.4% to 37.41%.

  13.   For areas which had previously piloted postal voting in local elections: Was the turnout this ear lower than in previous years when all-postal voting was used?

  N/A.

COST AND RESOURCES

  14.   As a result of using the all-postal system did you need to bring in:

(a)  extra staff—Yes.

(b)  staff on overtime—Yes.

  If so, at what cost?

45 staff per day from 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm (3, 4, 8, 9, 10).

5th—16 staff from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm.

10th—16 staff from 5.00 pm to 10.00 pm.

Rate of pay—£8 per hour.

  15.   What was the overall cost of the election?

Approx £200,000.

  16.   For areas with European Elections only. Was the cost greater than a traditional ballot and if so, by how much?

  N/A.

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Prepared 16 September 2004