Memorandum by Ellesmere Port and Neston
Borough Council (PVF 28)
Further to your letter dated 14 June the comments
I wish to make are as follows. For convenience I have retained
your headings and the numbers attached to each heading.
GENERAL
1. Problems were created not just with the
late publishing of the statutory instruments but also with the
decision to go ahead with the postal pilot itself. Even with a
close watch on the progress of the Order through both Houses of
Parliament it was difficult to predict which way the debate would
go. As a result, during the early days preparation had to be made
for both a traditional and an all-postal election. Whilst we did
receive copies of policy papers nothing could be taken for granted
until 27 April when the Order was made. What was surprising was
when it was finally decided that the North West Region was to
be part of the all-postal pilot; nothing was in place in the way
of guidance and training. It was thought that since two Regions—the
North East and East Midlands had known since December that they
were to pilot all postal voting that at least some preparatory
work would have been undertaken and would have been available
to us.
2. The problems we faced with the short
timescale between the close of nominations and the need to deliver
ballot papers were technical. The first problem was the late date
to redirect ballot papers to a different address. The software
was not in place to deal with this. We had to deal with this problem
with a "work around", as we did not have time to test
the system not all redirected ballot papers went to the correct
address. Printers were faced with the problem of receiving data
from authorities using different software packages.
These were problems that should have been addressed
and solved weeks if not months earlier. On the close of nominations
I did not have the facility in my election management package
to extract details of the candidates and send them to the printers.
Once again I had to devise a "work around" and send
the data to the printer by a different method. All this was caused
by a ludicrously short preparation period.
3. Authorities who had piloted earlier pilots
had the advantage that they knew at least six months in advance
and were able to plan and prepare. They were able to meet with
their partners such as the Royal Mail, software providers, printers
well in advance so that detailed plans could be made well in advance
of the publication of the Notice of Election.
4. We have one case of electoral fraud that
is being investigated by the police. The circumstances surrounding
this case are that a letter appeared in the local paper from a
person who was visiting his sister in law. At the house he found
four ballot papers that the electors did not want to use so they
gave them to him. He wagered a bet of £20 with a friend that
he could have more votes than him. His friend collected 14 and
he collected 17 ballot papers. He drew this to the attention of
the newspapers as he was aware of the different types of electoral
fraud but he thought this variation was worth reporting as "he
enjoyed it so much".
PRINTING AND
DISSEMINATION
5. It is difficult to know how much capacity
was available to cope with all-postal elections and I believe
the printing industry is in a better position to answer this question.
This was a matter that concerned all the Cheshire Districts from
an early stage. As a result of this concern we as a group decided
to use Opt2vote as we were satisfied they were able to call on
adequate printing resources together with sufficient back-up.
We had heard of large printers not wishing to be involved as they
realised the complexity of the project. Other printers became
involved underestimating the complexity of the task.
6. None of our ballot papers required reprinting.
7. The performance of the Royal Mail was
excellent. Early planning meetings were useful and a good working
relationship with their Customer Liaison Officer was established.
The only point not in the favour of the Royal Mail were the mistakes
made in their contract with the local authorities and the length
of time to took to rectify them.
8. (a) Only replacement ballot papers
to the disabled (12) were hand delivered.
(b) None were collected by hand.
9. Almost all ballot papers were received
by polling day and the day before. There were still a very small
number of people who had not received their ballot paper five
days before the election—this is estimated to be fewer than
20.
VOTING PRACTICALITIES
AND RETURNS
10. (a) Many voters complained about
the signed witness declaration, Many complained that it was inconvenient
to have it witnessed and did not want to ask a neighbour. Many
thought it would be possible to identify the voter and which way
they had voted. A considerable number of voters pointed out that
you did not have to take someone to a polling station to certify
the identity of an elector—why was the requirement different
with postal voting?
(b) The only complaint received with
regard to the dimensions of the ballot envelopes was that envelope
A was too large and that the elderly with poor eyesight or unstable
hands found it difficult to place one inside the other.
(c) Many voters found the instructions
difficult to understand also voters with poor eyesight found the
font used too small.
11. (a) 20 ballot papers (0.08%) were
returned up to one week after the close of poll.
(b) 301 (1.14%) ballot papers were
returned but not included in the count.
12. The European Election turnout was increased
from 21% (1999) to 42% this year. The Local Election turnout increased
from 27% (2003) to 42% this year.
COST AND
RESOURCES
14. (a) Opening postal votes from the
Monday before the day of polling required a substantial number
of extra staff. A total of 21 people were employed to open postal
votes. Most of these people were recruited from our permanent
register of polling staff. Other staff were redeployed from other
sections of the Legal Department to deal with such duties as answering
the telephone dealing with personal callers and generally supporting
the election staff at an exceptionally busy period.
(b) The elections team spent many long
hours both during the week and at weekends working to ensure that
these elections were successfully delivered. Many hours were also
spent at home reading the mountains of instructions, directives,
training manuals. A provisional cost for this election is £149,000.
Stephen Ewbank
Local Returning Officer
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