Meeting documents
Elections and Democratic Structures Committee
Tuesday, 10th July, 2012 10.00 am
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Agenda Item No: 5 |
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10th July 2012 |
Corporate Report Format
To
the Chair and Members of the
Elections and DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURES COMMITTEE
LOCAL
ELECTIONS AND REFERENDUM ON CHANGE IN GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS – 3rd
May 2012 – EVALUATION AND OUTCOME OF REVIEW OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF POSTAL VOTES
AND POLL CARDS.
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
1. The purpose of this report is to provide an evaluation
of the Elections and Referendum held on 3rd May, along with outcomes
of a review of problems associated with the delivery of postal votes and poll
cards in some areas.
RECOMMENDATIONS
2. The Committee is asked to:
(i)
Note the outcome of the review in respect
of undelivered postal votes and polling
cards in some areas of the Borough;
(ii)
Note the arrangements being put in place, detailed
at paragraph 14 to strengthen the processes and procedures for future elections
; and
(iii)
Note that future reports will be presented to
the Committee on progress being made implementing the improvements for running
future elections.
BACKGROUND
3. The organisation and conduct of an
election is a large and complex project. For the Election and Referendum held
on 3rd May the Council operated 183 polling stations for an eligible
electorate of 223,000, 60,000 of which receive postal votes. More than 400
members of staff were involved in operating the polling stations and count with
many more providing valuable assistance behind the scenes. All staff involved in the process were very
committed and hard working.
4. A post election/referendum evaluation
was undertaken utilising a questionnaire to candidates/agents and elected
members; feedback from the general public [via both the Council`s Website and
hard copies of a questionnaire in public buildings]; meetings with Royal Mail,
the external print company (Print Image), the Electoral Services Team, the
Chief Executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators and a cross
section of staff involved in the election.
5. The election and referendum were both
successfully delivered save for two areas of particular concern- postal vote
delivery and poll card delivery. Both issues are reflected in the 6 replies
received as part of the Review. Given the
concerns generated by these issues and raised at the Council meeting on 18th
May 2012 it was agreed that a report would be submitted to this meeting on the
circumstances surrounding the failure to issue a number of postal votes and the
delivery failure of a significant number of poll cards in several areas across
the borough. Since the Council meeting
the Electoral Commission has advised that the Council complied with all of the
Commission`s Performance Standards with the exception of:-
- the element relating to postal voting
because of the initial failure to print and deliver some postal votes and the
- poll card delivery because there were
insufficient measures in place to monitor delivery problems
Postal
Votes
6. The polling cards and postal votes are
produced by an external printer [Print Image] from data provided by Council. Once printed, the postal votes and poll cards
are collected form the printer by Royal Mail and delivered through Royal Mail’s
“Walk Sort” system. Due to a misunderstanding on the operation of the Electoral
Management system on how to manipulate data fields, the data sent to the Print
Image excluded 684 postal votes on the initial print run that were delivered by
Royal Mail from 20th April onwards. The
areas principally affected were parts of Sprotbrough, Conisbrough Parks, Hatfield
Woodhouse and Moss. When this problem became apparent on 30th April
arrangements were put in place to hand deliver these postal votes. On 2nd May a letter was hand delivered by
staff on 2nd. The letter
explained that three main options were open to those wishing to use their
postal vote. The postal vote could be
completed there and then and given to the member of staff, it could be
completed and returned to the nearest polling station or, because of the
special arrangements the Council has with Royal Mail, could be posted within
Doncaster before 4:00pm on Election Day,
Poll
Cards
7. Borough wide poll card delivery
commenced on 20th March and should have been completed by 29th
March. It became apparent from late April that from the number of calls
received by the Election Team that there had been a problem with delivery of poll
cards in pockets across the Borough. In particular, areas of Norton, Cantley, Branton,
Askern, Sprotborough , Mexborough, Micklebring, Stainton, Armthorpe, the Moss
Road area of Askern and in the Central Ward.
8. Contact was made with both Print Image and
Royal Mail to investigate delivery issues. Print Image advised that they had
printed 223,000 poll cards and their records showed that Royal Mail had
collected the poll cards and signed to confirm receipt of 223,000 poll cards. The
response from Royal Mail was that there had been no problems with delivery and
all of the cards they had collected from the printer had been delivered as
required.
9.
At this stage it was considered that the
problem affecting postal votes may also have affected the poll cards for those
areas. In light of this, arrangements were put in place to print and deliver
duplicate poll cards for those areas where problems had been clearly defined,
namely parts of Armthorpe, part of Cantley, the Moss Road area of Askern and
all of Branton.
10. In early May it became apparent that
there was a significant problem in the Mexborough area and on the 2nd
May arrangements were made to deliver a letter to all households in Mexborough advising
occupants of the fact that we had experienced problems in Mexborough with poll
card delivery and informing voters that they could vote as normal at their
usual polling station without a polling card, provided they were on the
electoral roll.
Royal
Mail and Print Image
11. Following the elections, meetings were
held with Royal Mail on 17th May and Print Image on 11th
June, 2012. From these meetings it has
not been possible to absolutely identify why poll cards had not been delivered
in some areas. There is common agreement by all parties that the data supplied
by the Council was correct albeit it was necessary to re-issue further data
following identification of the problem referred to at paragraph 6 above. The discussions with, and supporting
documentation supplied by, the printer, support that the production of all poll
cards has taken place.
12. The printers have also investigated
their production processes and interviewed production staff. Print image has sophisticated data and
records, including the ability to quickly and correctly produce an image of
poll cards where we have received notification of non-delivery and have
therefore been able to produce images of cards that we know have not been
delivered. Whilst this can only support the
production and handover of all poll cards, it is not conclusive evidence. Royal Mail confirms that they collected the
correct number of packages for the poll card delivery but do not certify this
handover as complete because they only count these packages and carry out
sample checks. As the sample checks were satisfactory, no further checks were
carried out when
13. In conclusion whilst the balance of
evidence indicates that the full delivery of poll cards was handed to Royal Mail
it is not possible to confirm this conclusively. The printers have however been
able to provide evidence to support that they completed the work successfully. In
the interim Royal Mail has given assurances regarding their willingness to work
towards improvements for the future.
Further
improvements identified by Post-Election Review
14. The general review has highlighted a
number of areas that would benefit from further consideration and urgent action
in the case of mobile polling stations.
i The running of the Election will be regarded
as a corporate project. To ensure wider access to corporate resources, a Council
and partner wide project team is being established [see below for suggested
membership]. Awareness amongst senior managers will be increased by a
presentation to the Council’s leadership team.
ii A Project
Group of key partners (internal and external –
e.g. S.Y. Police, Print
Image, Royal Mail,IT, key venues, security, Emergency Planning, Transport,
Communications) is being established to support the delivery of future
elections;
iii A small number of Portacabins and three
of the Youth Service camper vans were utilised as polling stations where
suitable permanent facilities had not been identified. The camper vans did not prove to be suitable
at all and should not be used in future.
Portacabins are expensive at a total cost of approximately £3,000 each,
involve compromises for both the staff and the electorate and should only be
used as a last resort when more suitable alternatives cannot be found. Further liaison needs to be undertaken with
schools and owners of other buildings within the relevant locations to
establish more suitable premises for use as polling stations. A number of head teachers have indicated that
they would prefer their schools to remain open on polling day if at all
possible and this is something that can be looked at as part of a wider review
of polling stations.
iv. Council staff are vital to the whole
process. In addition to the visible
roles at polling stations and the count, huge reliance is placed on staff to
carry out the widest range of roles from the processing of postal votes through
to delivery of polling booths and associated equipment to the polling stations. Staff also cover for colleagues that are
taken away from normal duties to undertake roles on the election. There has been some confusion amongst
managers as to the basis on which staff are released with some erroneously
believing that staff should take leave in order to assist with the
election. This is not the case, although
it is clearly necessary for managers to approve absence. For the staff involved on election day, and
at the following count, there is a need for formal training which is a further
time constraint. In order to ensure that
staff are released, wider and earlier briefings for managers will take place and
managers will be actively encouraged to make staff available wherever possible.
v. The facilities at Copley House for the
processing of postal votes are cramped and the arrangements did impact on the
effective running of the Elections Team which is located in the same room. Arrangements are in hand to make use of the
extensive facilities available at the Carr House Centre for the Police and
Crime Commissioners’ Elections in November 2012. A wider review of the logistical arrangements
for future elections, particularly in the context of the planned move of Legal
and Democratic Services to the CCQ, will also be undertaken.
vi An action/project plan based on the
Electoral Commission template incorporating key activities and deadlines will
be produced and monitored. This will also include a review of the suitability
of polling stations;
vii A procedures manual for the Elections
Team is to be created;
viii Refresher
training is to be provided for all members of the Elections Team on the use of
the Election software package;
ix The
Chief Executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators has been asked
to carry out a review of the Council’s election arrangements. His
recommendations will be incorporated into future planning for elections;
x Arrangements
for the delivery of poll cards at future elections will be reviewed; and
xi The possibility of creating our own
system of checking the timely delivery of poll cards and postal votes by asking
strategically located staff to report delivery to a central data base will be
explored.
RISKS AND
ASSUMPTIONS
15. A
comprehensive risk assessment is undertaken for each election and issues
arising from this report will be included in future risk assessments.
LEGAL
IMPLICATIONS
16. The provisions for the conduct of the
Local election are contained in the Local Elections (Principal Areas) (
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
17. The cost of the District Election and
Referendum is met by the Council. Provision has been made within the 2012/13
budget for the cost of the Local Election and Referendum.
BACKGROUND
PAPERS
18. File - Local Elections 2012
REPORT AUTHOR & CONTRIBUTORS
Tony Machin, Electoral Services Manager
Telephone: 01302 734649 Email: tony.machin@doncaster.gov.uk
Roger Harvey, Assistant Director Legal & Democratic Services
Telephone: 01302 734646 Email:roger.harvey@doncaster.gov.uk
Brendan Martin, Head of Democratic Services
Telephone: 01302 736707 Email:brendan.martin@doncaster.gov.uk
Jo
Miller
Returning
Officer and Chief Executive