Meeting documents
Elections and Democratic Structures Committee
Wednesday, 6th July, 2011 10.00 am
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Agenda Item No. 6 |
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6th July 2011 |
Agenda
Item No.
To the Chair and Members of the
ELECTIONS AND DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURES COMMITTEE
COMBINED LOCAL (DISTRICT AND PARISH COUNCIL) ELECTIONS AND REFERENDUM ON VOTING SYSTEM AT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS –
5TH MAY 2011 – POST ELECTION EVALUATION REPORT
Executive
Summary
1. The Local Election, both District and Parish Council, and the Referendum on the Voting System to be used at Parliamentary General Elections took place on the 5th May 2011. The purpose of this report is to provide an evaluation of the elections and referendum for information and comment by members.
Recommendation
2. The Committee is asked to consider and approve the report subject to any comments it wishes to make.
Background
3. Following the Parliamentary Election on the 6th May 2010 the Government announced its intention to hold a Referendum allowing people to make a choice on the voting system to be used at Parliamentary Elections. The Referendum took place on the 5th May 2011 the same day as the District and Parish Council elections. As a consequence of this there were three significant events taking place at the same time creating a significant and complex project.
4. Whilst the Elections as a whole were delivered successfully, with any project of this nature it is inevitable that there will be some areas where things do not operate as planned or as intended. In looking at such issues to identify areas of improvement there will be events that were controllable and uncontrollable with the controllable events likely to yield the greatest opportunities for improvement.
5.
An additional factor is that for the Referendum
the legislation provides that the lead officer – Chief Counting Officer – is
the Chair of the Electoral Commission with the Returning Officers of Local
Councils being appointed as Regional and Local Counting Officers in their respective
areas. The Regional Counting Officer for Yorkshire and the
6.
The Chair of the Electoral Commission was
understandably keen to ensure that there were consistent standards of practice
applied nationally for the Referendum and issued extensive directions to ensure
this.
This resulted in,
a complex management process with some loss of local flexibility to deal with
issues and, to some extent, the Local Elections being overshadowed by the
referendum requirements.
7. Given the particular circumstances it is considered that the most effective way to undertake the evaluation is to consider issues arising locally, those attributable to the direction of the Electoral Commission and any that might be considered unavoidable or uncontrollable.
8. The following key learning points in these three areas have been identified: -
Local
· Additional dedicated personnel required to assist with the receipt and delivery of ballot boxes and other equipment from polling station staff at the count.
·
Additional personnel/implementation of
contingency arrangements to deal with the higher than normal volume of postal
votes arriving from polling stations and through the late Royal Mail delivery
at the close of poll. (Need to add a sentence re
expected / actual numbers)
The number of postal votes to be opened after the close
of polling varies but is usually around 200.
tThis year there were 600 from Royal
Mail and 400 from polling stations,
giving a total of 1000.
· Additional announcements during the count to advise of progress.
· There has also been some suggestion that separate ballot boxes should have been used. This was considered and whilst this would have offered some benefit in avoiding the need to separate ballot papers it would have considerably increased the logistical issues of issuing and returning ballot boxes as identified above. In addition it would have required the use of up to 600 ballot boxes and the acquisition of a possible further 350 ballot boxes for this election. Although some polling stations were issued a second box the majority only needed one and on balance the approach taken was felt to be appropriate.
Electoral Commission
· As outlined above the Commission issued detailed directions and instructions for the conduct of the referendum. This documentation had to be read in addition to legislation. The volume of these documents and timing of their issue and subsequent updates where changes were not highlighted created a considerable burden at an already busy time. In response to concern, a series of bulletins was introduced and whilst the intention of these is acknowledged it effectively increased the burden.
· There is a general perception that the Commission prioritised the referendum failing to recognise fully the implications locally for the delivery of district and parish council elections.
·
The level of staffing prescribed by the
Commission in response to the problems that occurred elsewhere in a
small number of highly publicised instances was higher felt to
be higher than necessary.
· The requirement to prioritise the referendum at the verification led to delays in progressing the counting of votes for the Doncaster Council elections.
· Similar issues have been raised in other areas.
Uncontrollable
·
The considerable number of postal votes
delivered in the late Royal Mail delivery (600) and brought in from polling stations
(400) which had to be opened and security checked before the verification could
be completed. (Compare with normal
experience + time required to update all 3 + scale of Parish counts in
Doncaster) As already identified the expected receipt of
postal votes at this time is approximately 200, this represents a delivery 5
times greater than the anticipated amount, significantly greater than the
anticipated potential variance and requiring additional time to process and
produce totals for the 3 different postal elections.
·
As
a Metropolitan District Doncaster has a larger than usual number of Parish
Councils some of which are warded and a significant number of contested
parishes requiring a large scale Parish count with a commensurate
impact on timings and workloads generally.
9. Whilst there are some clearly identified learning points from the recent elections it should be acknowledged that this year’s was unusual in having three events taking place on the same day. A comparison has been drawn with other authorities and completion times for various activities including the completion of the counting of votes were similar. However in doing this it must be remembered that the nature of individual authorities differs, not least the number and size of parishes likely to be contested.
10. All these issues were taken into account when determining the timing of the different events from commencing the verification to the Referendum count which had to start at 4.00pm on Friday the 6th May 2011. The arrangements put in place provided for the effective delivery and completion of each stage ready for the next taking account of local variables.
11.
Since the Elections there have been
opportunities for feedback through the Regional and other networks and
identified issues have been included in responses. There is a significant
degree of commonality in the issues experienced and those experienced in
Options Considered
12. The elections and referendum are a statutory duty and must be carried out in accordance with statutory requirements.
Impact on the Council’s Key Objectives
13.
Elections are a major statutory responsibility
for the Council which rely on the support from within the Council particularly
that of the individual personnel who undertake the various tasks required to
deliver this major project. The combination of multiple elections on one day is
likely to continue, with the strict statutory procedural requirements
contributing to the prospects that counts will inevitably take longer. The
need to manage these circumstances to minimise the impact on personnel will
have an impact on the Council’s objective’s
particularly in the current period of severe budgetary restraint.
14. In May 2012 the Council will have its own Local Elections along with the Referendum on proposed change to a Leader and Cabinet in addition there are the proposals for the introduction of Elected Police Commissioners which may still be introduced at those elections.
15. (Impact
of timescales on staff and counting agents / agents / candidates plus para re
2012 elections - prospects for long count actions arising from this analysis) Given the
prospect of multiple elections next year, we will need to consider how best to
manage the impact on all personnel involved in the process including staff,
candidates and agents.
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Implications of this initiative |
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A Prosperous Place |
The democratic
process contributes directly to the well being and prosperity of the area |
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Skills &
Lifelong Learning |
See note in |
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Healthy & Caring |
See note in |
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Safer, Cleaner & Greener |
See note in |
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Equality of |
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Improving Neighbourhoods Together (Cross-cutting) |
See note in |
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Protecting The Environment (Cross-cutting) |
See note in |
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Achieving Excellence |
Risks and Assumptions
16.
The
delivery of an election is a significant and complex undertaking with strict
statutory deadlines. Planning is a key component in reducing or eliminating
risks.
Legal Implications
17.
The
provisions for the conduct of the Local election are contained in the Local
Elections (Principal Areas) (
Financial Implications
18.
The cost
of the District election is met by the Council, Parish Council elections are
charged to the respective parishes whilst funding for the Referendum is met by
the Government. The combination of the elections and the sharing of costs will
reduce the overall cost burden of the elections to all parties. Provision has
been made within the 2011 budget for the cost of the Local election.
Consultation
19. Consultation is not undertaken in connection with elections, however activities will be undertaken at a national and local level to raise awareness and promote participation.
Report Author AND CONTRIBUTORS
Tony
Machin, Head of Elections and Democratic Renewal
Tel: 01302 734649
E-mail:
tony.machin@doncaster.gov.uk
Background Papers
File – Local Elections – 5th May 2011
Rob vincent
returning Officer and
local counting officer