Select Committee on Constitutional Affairs Written Evidence


Memorandum by Sense (VOT 03)

  1.  Sense is a national voluntary organisation which works and campaigns for the needs of people who are deafblind, providing advice, support, information and services for deafblind people, their families and professionals. It was founded in 1955 as a self-help group for parents of children born with congenital rubella syndrome. Over the years our aims have expanded to encompass people with acquired deafblindness. Many of the people for whom we provide services have additional disabilities, including learning disabilities.

  2.  Deafblindness is a unique disability. Services that may be accessible for blind people who can hear and/or deaf people who can see will not necessarily be accessible to deafblind people. Being deafblind means that you have serious problems with sight and hearing. It does not necessarily mean that you are completely deaf or completely blind.

  3.  Being able to vote in privacy and secrecy is a fundamental right for everyone, including deafblind people, but it is of course necessary to be registered to vote in order for this to happen.

  4.  Individual voter registration will facilitate multi-channel voting, meaning that people with sensory impairments will be able to choose the method of voting that is most accessible to them. Sense welcomes this. However, it is important that offering electors a choice of voting methods is not used as an excuse for lack of accessibility in polling stations. The Polls Apart study produced by Scope found that many disabled voters prefer to vote in person rather than be offered a postal vote, and this is also true of elderly voters, many of whom have sensory impairments.

ADVANTAGES OF INDIVIDUAL REGISTRATION

  5.  Voting is both an individual and a collective act. Individual, as opposed to household, voter registration underlines the fact that no-one is obliged to reveal how they voted, whether to members of their household or anyone else. However, Sense would not want to see individual registration leading to a fall in registration by groups such as those living in residential homes. Managers of residential homes should be asked to assist those people living in the homes with completing their forms. People who are unable to sign should be allowed to make a mark and have this witnessed. The form should clearly state that it is acceptable for an elector to receive assistance with the form.

STRATEGIES FOR ENCOURAGING REGISTRATION

  6.  Sense policy is that everyone eligible to vote should be registered, whether or not they have the capacity to vote, and that anyone capable of voting should be enabled to do so. The decision on whether a particular person has capacity is one for the presiding officer at the polling station rather than anyone connected with that person's care.

  7.  If voter registration were made non-compulsory there is a danger that registration among disabled people, particularly people living in residential homes, would fall. For this reason, we do not support a move to non-compulsory registration.

  8.  If registration continues to be compulsory, it would be helpful if materials could also be produced for people such as care home managers setting out their responsibilities in relation to registration.

GEOGRAPHIC AND ETHNIC VARIATIONS IN LEVELS OF VOTER REGISTRATION

  9.  We note that the Select Committees' joint enquiry will cover issues of geographic and ethnic variations in levels of voter registration. We suggest that the committees might also like to examine issues of variation in the levels of voter registration among disabled people.

ADVANTAGES OR DISADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS

  10.  Most local authorities have information about voter registration on their web sites. However, downloadable electoral registration forms in PDF form can be difficult for people with visual impairments to read and complete. The Electoral Commission's website has an excellent facility allowing people to complete a form on-line before sending it to their local authority. This is extremely useful for people with low vision, who can enlarge the text on-screen to their preferred size. However, it is important that people without access to the internet, or who find electronic systems daunting, can continue to register using a paper form, and be provided with assistance to do this if they need it.

DIFFICULTIES FOR DISABLED PEOPLE AND OTHERS UNABLE TO COMPLETE FORMS

  11.  Some disabilities may prevent a person from completing a form themselves or providing a signature. Local authorities should be required to offer assistance to such people on request, and the availability of such assistance should be publicised on the form. The form should be available in accessible formats such as braille, tape and large print, and local authorities should accept responses in these formats.

  12.  Information about how to register should meet the RNIB clear print guidelines, and should also be available in alternative formats. This will benefit many people, including large numbers of elderly people who have poor sight and hearing but would not necessarily define themselves as deafblind.

AVAILABILITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY OF THE REGISTER

  13.  Sense suggests that there should be a facility for electors to be able to indicate on their registration forms that they would like help with the ballot. However, it is important that access to the list of electors requiring such assistance is restricted to those people with a need to know, in order to avoid any threat to the safety of vulnerable people.

BASIS FOR INDIVIDUAL REGISTRATION

  14.  If the basis for individual registration were address-based, it would enable registration officers to identify properties known to be in multiple occupation, for example residential homes, and to take action to ensure that the occupants register. For example, registration officers could be asked to send multiple copies of the registration form to premises in multiple occupation. Materials could be produced for display, encouraging people to register to vote and reminding them that it is a legal requirement to do so.

MEANS OF ENSURING THE SECURITY OF THE REGISTER

  15.  Whatever means of ensuring the security of the register are used, it is essential that they do not exclude disabled people. If PINs are to be used, for example, then the keypads with which they are to be used should be designed to be as easy as possible for people with visual impairments to use.


 
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Prepared 25 January 2005