Memorandum by Royal Mail Group plc (POS
20)
Royal Mail Group plc welcomes the recommendations
of the Electoral Commission for all-postal voting to become standard
for local elections, subject to legislation against fraud being
tightened ("The Shape of Elections to Come" July 2003).
Once enacted, The European Parliamentary and Local Elections Pilot
Bill will see Yorkshire and the Humber, the North-West, the North-East
and the East Midlands piloting all-postal voting in June 2004.
Royal Mail believes that these larger regionally based pilots
should test fully the feasibility, acceptability and operational
effectiveness of the new methods of voting prior to a possible
all-postal national election.
The Select Committee asked for six areas to
be considered in the course of their inquiry, and we have addressed
each issue below.
1. PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS
1.1 The most serious negative public perception
of postal voting focused on its vulnerability to fraud. Yet, whilst
the public may feel that postal voting is more susceptible to
fraud than traditional polling station elections, the reality
is that Royal Mail is well used to handling sensitive items such
as cheques and credit cards and instances of fraud are extremely
rare. The security procedures in place for postal voting are strict
and these are discussed in more detail in section 2.
1.2 A second issue raised in public debate
concerns the potential impact of industrial action on all-postal
ballots. Royal Mail is developing contingencies against such events,
and has recently completed satisfactory pay discussions with the
Communication Workers Union which have significantly reduced this
risk. We are fully committed to successful, safe and secure all-postal
balloting.
2. ELECTORAL
FRAUD
2.1 Electoral fraud is a key consideration
for any form of voting but particularly for "remote"
voting. Whilst this issue is high in public perceptions of the
problems of postal voting, the Electoral Commission's evaluation
of the May 2003 all-postal pilots found only very limited evidence
of any increase in fraud or electoral offences linked to the use
of all postal ballots. In its evaluation report, the Electoral
Commission states "all postal voting has a positive effect
on voter participation and can provide safeguards at least as
effective as those in traditional elections—provided that
the recommendations made by the Commission for improving security
and confidence are implemented". Despite the concerns
expressed about fraud, MORI research indicated that this did not
deter people from voting (Attitudes towards Voting and the Political
Process in 2003, MORI, August 2003) and they found those who did
not vote chose not to do so because of political disaffection
rather than concerns about security or fraud.
2.2 The main concern with postal voting
fraud concerns personation. There are two ways in which this could
occur, and Royal Mail is addressing both problems. The first concern
arises when postal ballot papers are returned to Royal Mail marked
"not known at this address", usually as a result of
people moving and not updating their electoral registration. To
address these concerns, Royal Mail, will advise councils to run
a mini-canvass as near to the election as possible to ensure that
the electoral register is as up to date as possible.
2.3 The second concern regards multi occupancy
dwellings such as flats, nursing homes, rooming houses and halls
of residence where mail is often left unattended allowing for
the removal of mail by persons other than the addressee. Whilst
Royal Mail takes every effort to ensure that the mail is safe,
our commitment and liability is to the first point of entry/delivery
to a particular address. We are unable to influence its internal
delivery or collection once mail has been delivered and it is
the occupants/individual's responsibility to ensure that mail
is secure. Therefore Royal Mail would advise local authorities,
who will have key information about their own areas and the type
of housing, to consider this issue further.
2.4 Despite these concerns, the Electoral
Commission found no specific evidence of personation in all postal
voting pilots either in 2002 or 2003. Fears should also be allayed
by the provision in the European Parliamentary and Local Elections
Pilot Bill to allow the existing statutory provisions on personation
to be extended to give the police the power of arrest, based on
'reasonable suspicion' of personation, at any location, not just
at polling stations.
2.5 A final issue concerns the possibility
of ballot papers not being delivered due to staff intercepting
them, for whatever reason. During any election a full audit trail
will be provided. This is in addition to Royal Mail's well-established
vetting and prosecution policy, our internal security force of
over 500 employees and our network of CCTV cameras in all sorting
offices. There is actually very little manual handling of postal
votes in the mail and we are confident that our people will carry
out their duties in terms of the secure collection and delivery
of postal votes with due care and integrity. Any member of Royal
Mail Group plc found deliberately tampering with or failing to
deliver postal votes will be subject to full disciplinary procedure
and possible legal action.
2.6 The Electoral Commission has recommended
a number of changes to current electoral practice and law which
should further reassure the public of the security of all-postal
voting. The European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots)
Bill includes many of these measures to improve the security of
postal voting and to help build confidence and trust in the new
system. The ODPM has also made a number of suggestions to tackle
fraud for all-postal pilots, including changes to the ballot papers,
secure delivery of ballot papers, targeting problem areas, contacting
a sample of electors, publicising ways of reporting fraud or attempted
fraud, and police intervention. Royal Mail welcomes the suggestions
from both the Electoral Commission and the ODPM and is keen to
tackle and pre-empt fraud through these methods and others, such
as public awareness campaigns. Many of the security and fraud
concerns are, in fact, just as applicable to traditional voting.
A public awareness campaign should begin to address the perception
issues surrounding them.
3. IMPACT ON
TURNOUT
3.1 The average turnout for postal pilot
elections is significantly higher than for traditional voting
methods. One such example is from the Stevenage Borough elections
(Annex 1) where turnout has doubled from 25.7% in 1988 (using
conventional voting methods) to 52.2% in 2003 (using postal voting).
The average turnout for all last year's all-postal pilots was
49.3%.
4. ADMINISTRATION
AND COST
4.1 As much notice of an election as possible
should be given Royal Mail. This will result in a better quality
of service. Given the responsibility Royal Mail would have for
ensuring the success of all-postal voting, we are keen to remain
involved at all stages of the planning process. There are a number
of practical issues to consider, including the size and weight
of any documents sent and the delivery of unaddressed electoral
material. Heavier volumes of mail during a combined election will
also require Royal Mail to schedule staff and vehicles carefully
to prevent capacity problems. Advance planning, which enables
a high proportion of the extra mail volume to be mechanically
sorted, will help alleviate any such problems. To facilitate this
planning, we ask that any new timetable of elections should be
published well in advance to enable us to align our plans and
resources to provide the best possible service.
4.2 When considering costs, the Electoral
Commission stated that the total cost of an all-postal election
is higher than that for conventional elections. However, much
of this increased cost is incurred by increased publicity undertaken
by the authorities, especially those carrying out an all-postal
election pilot for the first time. Many of the 2003 pilot authorities
have created promotional budgets linked to pilot activity, but
have never previously undertaken this level of publicity activity
for local elections. As a result, their costs automatically exceed
the costs of previous conventional elections. If these promotional
costs are stripped out, the comparisons are much closer—and
in some cases the all-postal method would be cheaper.
4.3 The cost per voter in all-postal schemes
ranged from £1.42 to £5.03 per voter, as compared to
a typical cost for traditional elections of just over £1.
Nevertheless, authorities who have already held postal elections
appear to be comfortable that the additional costs reap significant
benefits.
5. ACCESS AND
DISABILITY ISSUES
5.1 Scope held a review of the 2003 voting
pilots and concluded that, "the majority of disabled people
thought that postal voting was an easy and convenient way to vote
. . . though postal voting is inherently inaccessible to some
disabled people. Visually impaired people are one such obvious
group but it also includes many people with communication, neurological,
learning and co-ordination impairments." (Polls Apart,
Developing inclusive e-democracy, An evaluation of the accessibility
of the May 2003 electoral pilot voting schemes, Scope, 2003)
5.2 The Scope review raised the concern
that postal voting means that certain people will not be able
to vote in secret. Scope stated that comprehensive provision of
the tactile voting device and the large print version of the ballot
paper are crucial to minimizing the numbers of people who are
unable to vote independently using any voting system that uses
paper. Effective promotion of these voting aids is therefore crucial,
particularly in an all-postal election where disabled people need
to request them rather than accessing them at the polling station.
Royal Mail and the Electoral Commission's Best Practice Guidance
support both the use and promotion of these voting aids.
5.3 A further risk is that of coercion,
where people may be put under pressure to vote in a certain way
or have their vote completed by someone else. Scope says that
many disabled people who need support will seek it informally,
through their family and friends or their carers. Although many
may be comfortable with this situation, some may not. To address
this, local authorities need to create structures of independent
voter support to ensure that disabled people can request assistance
from an impartial person such as a council official. Royal Mail
supports this advice.
5.4 Scope also states that local authorities
have an obligation to make postal voting as accessible as possible
and, although some local authorities tried hard, it was disappointed
that many did not adopt even basic good practice. Royal Mail is
now working closely with the Electoral Commission to ensure that
local councils are advised of these accessibility issues. One
way this will be done is through the Electoral Commission's recently
published good practice guidance aimed at improving access to
electoral services by people who face disadvantages in using traditional
voting systems. The guidance, Equal access to electoral procedures,
aims to provide electoral administrators with practical examples
and advice on how best to ensure equal access to polling stations,
election literature, poll cards and electoral registration forms
when preparing for elections. Royal Mail strongly supports this
guidance.
6. VOTER CHOICE
6.1 The Electoral Commission strategic evaluation
of the 2003 electoral pilot schemes has stated that "there
are real risks that if Returning Officers in areas with repeated
experience of all-postal elections are obliged to revert to use
of polling stations alone, voters will express considerable frustration
and disappointment". Beyond this, both the MORI and Electoral
Commission surveys have found public attitudes towards new types
of voting across the pilots to be positive, with choice emerging
as a key issue and multi-channel pilots being preferred. To ensure
a good take up of postal voting, the Electoral Commission states
"Effective promotion of the availability of postal voting
is critical . . . in terms of promoting postal and proxy votes,
local authorities do believe that publicity can make a significant
positive impact; and this applies to virtually all forms of publicity
but in particular to those that have been produced locally".
Royal Mail fully supports the need for such publicity.
For the 2004 June pilots, Royal Mail will work
closely with councils, and especially those new to all postal
voting, on the wording and design related to security statements,
barcodes and other materials to ensure that all public concerns
are fully addressed in election material. In addition, Royal Mail
has produced a "best practice guide", which is essentially
an operational plan based on our experience of previous pilots.
Royal Mail will also advise councils on how best they can communicate
their security measures to the electorate in order to enhance
public knowledge about how anti-fraud measures will be used in
all-postal voting pilots.
Royal Mail Group plc
February 2004
Annex 1
CASE STUDY OF STEVENAGE BOROUGH COUNCIL
Stevenage Borough Council held an All Postal
Voting Pilot during the May 2003 Local Election. Following a successful
all postal voting pilot for the previous year's elections, Stevenage
Borough Council again opted to run their May local elections through
an all-postal voting pilot with the aim of achieving a turnout
level of at least half the eligible electorate. The council surpassed
its target and achieved a turnout of 52.2%. A further success
of the pilot was a significant improvement in cost effectiveness
as compared to a traditional election. The all-postal vote cost
£1.00 per vote. This is 50p a vote cheaper than using polling
booths.
The 2002 pilot had identified a need for additional
security measures to ensure the success of the 2003 pilot. This
was successfully achieved through the use of barcoding and, to
cater for those voters who did not want to use the post, a drop
off facility was provided at the council offices for those residents
not wishing to vote by post. The administration of the election
proved to be straightforward due to an excellent working relationship
between the council and Royal Mail. Royal Mail's Mailsort and
Business Response mailing services were used to accommodate the
large volumes of local authority mail.
Overall, the pilot achieved its turnout target
while meeting the security and cost saving requirements of the
council. In addition, postal voting proved to be a popular method
of voting with residents and councillors alike. Awareness of the
pilot was also good as the council used a variety of promotional
activities including newspaper coverage, mailshots, radio advertising
and a poster campaign.
TURNOUT IN THE BOROUGH OF STEVENAGE 1998-2003
Year of election
| Voting arrangements | Turnout%
|
1998 | Conventional
| 25.7 |
| 1999 | Conventional | 29.7
|
| 2000 | Conventional | 29.0
|
| 2002 | All postal | 52.9
|
| 2003 | All postal | 52.2
|
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Annex 2
CASE STUDY OF HEREFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
Herefordshire County Council also held an All-Postal Voting
Pilot in the May 2003 Local Election. Their aim was also to increase
turnout to 50%. Their last comparable election had produced a
turnout of 38%, which, whilst already good compared to other areas,
they wanted to increase further by running an all-postal ballot.
The pilot was intended to automate the postal vote issue
process. A special watermark was used on the ballot paper and
the need to perforate it avoided. The need for a signed declaration
of identity was also dispensed with, but electors were required
to sign the return envelope. Bar coding was used, and marked copies
of the lists of postal votes received was supplied to political
parties in time to allow for the close of poll to be at 5.00 pm
on 1 May 2003. Drop off points were provided at six regional council
offices to provide an alternative to those voters not wishing
to register their vote by post.
The council found that administration of an all-postal voting
ballot was simpler and more cost effective than a traditional
polling station election. The relationship with Royal Mail contributed
to this, as the council found it very convenient simply to hand
the mailing activity over to one supplier. The council used Royal
Mail's step-by-step guide and Business Response service, which
provided them with advice on the design of election materials
to ensure a trouble free processing through the mail. As a result,
cost per vote was £1.64 per vote compared to £1.91 per
vote in the last comparable election run on traditional lines.
Promotional activity was targeted at younger voters, as turnout
was already relatively high amongst the older population in this
area. This awareness raising employed a range of media, including
billboard and bus advertising, posters, leaflets available at
local council offices, an insert in the free local newspaper and
beer mats distributed to local pubs and clubs. This was supported
by distribution of a postcard replacing the standard poll card
using Royal Mail's Walksort mailing service for large volumes
of local authority mail.
Against their target of 50%, Herefordshire achieved a remarkable
58.3% turnout, which was the highest turnout anywhere in the country.
The council was delighted with this result stating that they were
"certain that it is purely because of the convenience of
the postal vote" (Steve Oram, Electoral Registration Manager)
and felt it was fully justified in its decision to go ahead with
an all-postal voting pilot.
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