The independent elections watchdog has contacted ‘UK Electoral Roll’ after it was alerted to the company offering a £30-a-time ‘assisted service’ to complete customers’ electoral roll registrations.

The company also uses a £1.53 a minute premium rate number to take customer questions.

Alex Robertson, Director of Communications, said:

This service is clearly ripping people off. It is very simple to register to vote and we want to make sure no one mistakenly uses this or any service that charges people for something that is available free of charge.

The Commission has now asked the company to remove its advertising, and is reminding people that they can register to vote for free by visiting www.aboutmyvote.co.uk, calling freephone 0800 3 280 280, or contacting their local authority.

* Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary published in print or online.

If so, you need to be aware of a change in the guidance about nominations and the new nomination form. If you do not return the form correctly you may be disqualified.

The regulation is:

a candidate must return the entire consent to nomination form which includes copies of the relevant legislation by the close of nominations for their nomination to be valid [my emphasis]

So when you return your nomination form you must send back the 5 pages of legislation, as well as the consent form.

ALDC thinks it is a rather silly requirement, but warns all candidates and agents to heed their advice. All nominations must be submitted by noon on Friday April 5th.

You can download the latest version of the nomination pack from the Electoral Commission.

We have commenced work on reforming electoral law.  We expect to open a consultation in late 2014.  A report with recommendations to Government will be published in summer 2015…

The twin aims of the project are to ensure, first, that electoral laws are presented within a rational, modern legislative framework, governing all elections and referendums under statute; and second, that the law governing the conduct of elections and referendums is modern, simple, and fit for purpose.

More details are on the Law Commission’s website but it’s worth noting that the prime intent is to tidy up the current law rather than create radically different laws. In the Law Commission’s phrase, electoral law is currently “complex, voluminous and fragmented”. The review is intended to tackle that and not to consider “wider policy issues”.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

The Electoral Commission has just published the results of its research into how individual electoral registration has been working in Northern Ireland since its introduction there in 2002. The conclusion? An annual canvass must be kept.

Following the introduction of IER in Northern Ireland in 2002 the requirement for an annual canvass was removed in 2006, which meant that electors were registered once and only had to re-register if their personal details changed. This research looked at the effectiveness of continuous registration in Northern Ireland.

The report shows that the electoral register is now 71% complete and 78% accurate. The previous assessment carried out in 2008 estimated the register to be 83% complete and 94% accurate. The current findings suggest that the reason for this significant decline is because the processes currently employed by the Chief Electoral Officer to manage the register under continuous registration are unable to keep pace with either people moving home or people becoming newly eligible to join the register…

The Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, currently before the UK Parliament, provides for the annual canvass to remain in Great Britain following the introduction of IER. It is therefore likely that Great Britain will avoid the main problems of continuous registration that have been experienced in Northern Ireland.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

Former Tory Minister Michael Mates is being probed for alleged electoral fraud over his attempt to become one of David Cameron’s new police commissioners.

The crony of crooked tycoon and Tory donor Asil Nadir, will be grilled by police over claims he broke election laws by giving a false address to win the lucrative post…

It was sparked by a complaint from rival Don Jerrard, an independent “justice and anti-corruption” candidate fighting Mr Mates for the £85,000-a-year role running the Hampshire force.

The former lawyer wrote to the county’s Chief Constable claiming Mr Mates breached the 2006 Fraud Act by giving his address as a house where he rents rooms in Winchester.

But Mr Jarrard claims Mr Mates, 78, and wife Mary were on the electoral role in neighbouring West Sussex, where they have lived for 15 years, until earlier this year.

Mr Mates last night said police had no choice but to investigate but claimed he was the innocent victim of a smear attempt.

Michael Mates, you may recall, was previously the subject of a fine investigative piece by Michael Crick.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

This has come to light too late in the day for him to actually pull out of the election, so his name will still be on the ballot paper with the Labour Party’s name and logo next to it. If he’s elected, he will have to immediately resign, triggering a by-election.

For voters who don’t follow the news that closely, there is therefore a good chance people will vote for him not knowing this. But even for those who do, if they are Labour supporters, there is a problem: do you vote for a candidate who will then have to resign because you want a by-election that another Labour candidate might then win, or do you vote for another candidate whose victory won’t trigger the expense of a by-election (and one which, in the circumstances, Labour might struggle in)?

Elected Police and Crime Commissioners have not got off to a great start. Having a contest on Northamptonshire where a candidate is on the ballot paper is hardly going to help change that, especially if some voters react with understandable anger at discovering they ‘wasted’ their vote on someone who couldn’t win.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

Labour peer Lord Hart has just tabled an amendment to the Electoral Registration Bill which would have another major impact on the timetable of the Coalition’s plans to cut seat numbers.

The amendment, which seeks to amend a clause in Section 10 of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, declares that the Boundary Commissions reviews will not take place until….2018. Yes, you read that right, 2018.

The move is Labour’s attempt to get certainty for the whole PPC selection process and crucially means that a whole cycle of boundary reviews is killed off (as opposed to getting it in place after 2015)…

The amendment (which will appear tomorrow on the Order Paper) has not just Labour signatories. It has also been signed by Plaid peer Lord Wigley…and Liberal Democrat heavyweight Lord Rennard.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

There has recently been a rise in concerns about the quality of elections in the UK and electoral administrators have commonly been blamed for making administrative errors or not planning properly for elections.

The causes of legal fragmentation and complexity are partly devolution. This has created many overlapping frameworks of electoral law, more frequent elections and more combined elections and the lack of consolidation. But it is also that electoral law needs to be consolidated periodically and this has not been done since the 1980s.

Read his piece in full to find out what is being done about that.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

The Deputy Prime Minister announced that the Government is backing the Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill brought forward by Gavin Barwell MP, which receives Second Reading in the House of Commons today.

The Bill repeals section 141 of the Mental Health Act, which sets out that an MP automatically loses their seat if detained under the Act for more than six months. It also amends similar discriminatory provisions in legislation concerning jurors and company directors.

Meanwhile, another Police and Crime Commissioner candidate has had to stand down because of a past offence:

Labour’s candidate in Lincolnshire Phil Dilks has been forced to step down over an “offence” from 44 years ago. Here’s how Phil describes it:

“Some 44 years ago, I was one of a group of lads on scooters visiting a mate in hospital. I believe it was in the school summer holidays in 1968 when I was 16. As we left the car park to go home, one of the lads stupidly picked up an old crash helmet that wasn’t his. We all went back to my family home to mess about as teenagers do. Unknown to me, the helmet was left in our garage. The police never found out who took it, but because it was found in our garage, I was charged with handling stolen goods.”

At the time Phil was a sunday school teacher. He was backed up by the local vicar. Phil has probably not thought about the events of 1968 for quite some time. Since then he has been a TA soldier for almost 20 years, an elected councillor for 17 years and member of Lincolnshire Police Authority for almost eight years.

The extremely tight rules which are causing these problems are not a mistake or a decision that got little attention. In fact, they were the result of deliberate steps to introduce far tougher qualification rules than normal – steps called for by the police, boasted about by Conservatives and fully supported by Labour.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

The council’s chief executive Stephen Barnes had written a letter to the Electoral Commission last year, saying allegations and perceptions of malpractice around postal voting “are seriously undermining public confidence in the whole electoral process”.

In the letter, the council cited examples of probable malpractice and the difficulties in taking action…

The leader of the borough council’s Labour Group, Councillor Mohammad Iqbal, said his party had won seats from the Conservatives fairly, adding: “There isn’t a problem in Pendle”…

The panel, consisting of cross-party councillors and representatives, will gather evidence at five public hearings across the borough.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

If I were to move, I would be quite happy to let the gas company, the TV Licensing authority, the local council’s tax department, the electoral registration services and many others know, all in one go.

Other people may well not be happy to do the same – but in the desire to ensure that those who want to keep data separate rightly have their rights respected we have too often overlooked the opportunities to make it easier to share data wherever people are happy for this to happen.

So what should be done? Read Mark Pack’s post in full to find out.

* Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary published in print or online.

Lee Barron, the Labour candidate for the new post, has revealed how is prepared to refuse to stand down as a magistrate before the election, which will be held in November.

Guidance issued last Friday by a senior judge has effectively barred magistrates from standing for the post, which in Northamptonshire comes with an estimated £70,000 salary…

He said: “I am going to say I am not going to stand down, I am going to carry on”. [Northampton Chronicle]

Many Conservative candidates are also likely to face a problem:

It is thought that the guidance issued last Friday by the senior presiding judge in England and Wales could affect as many as six or seven – a fifth – of the official Tory candidates so far adopted and others who are standing as independents or for other parties.

One of the Conservatives’ leading candidates openly attacked the judge’s ruling on Thursday night. Craig Mackinlay, the frontrunner to become the police and crime commissioner in Kent, contacted the Guardian on Twitter and said: “Massive row developing (about) PCCs and magistrates. I am ‘caught’. Unacceptable and nonsensical. Post election can agree but not pre.”

His intervention came as those affected started to take the first steps to launch a possible legal challenge to Lord Justice Goldring’s decision.

Among the independents affected will be Ann Barnes, who has been chair of Kent police authority for the past six years.

Goldring’s guidance is also believed to ban the dozens of elected councillors who are also magistrates from serving on police and crime panels, which are being introduced to scrutinise the actions of elected police commissioners. [The Guardian]

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

His statement points the finger at the Home Office and Electoral Commission:

The Labour Party has only now received clarification from the Home Office and the Electoral Commission that juvenile convictions for imprisonable offences will bar people from becoming a police and crime commissioner.

That is, however, not quite the full story because this issue was directly debated when the legislation was going through Parliament, with both Conservative and Labour figures saying how vital the provision was:

Nick Herbert (Minister of State, Justice; Arundel and South Downs, Conservative): The standard is higher than any that has been suggested in either Government or Opposition amendments. It is a stringent measure…

Vernon Coaker (Gedling, Labour): As the Minister rightly said, that is an exceptionally tough condition of eligibility to stand, but it is right…

Nick Herbert: I do not think that we can agree to such stringency but then say, “They may have committed a relatively minor offence when they were young.”

Vernon Coaker: I understand the point he made about the provision applying to any imprisonable offence committed by an under-18. He makes the point very well—this agrees with the point that I am making—that the necessity of the credibility and integrity of the person being above reproach is such that the test has to be the same as for a chief constable, or indeed any police officer. It is simply not tenable to have it otherwise.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

It is absurd that he can’t stand. It is an absurdity that Parliament deliberately decided to enact, for the ban does not arise from unintended side effects of another measure or from poor drafting. Instead, it was a deliberate decision to introduce an unprecedented restriction on who can stand in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections and to do so knowing it would cover people who did something whilst a child.

Take this example of the debate from 8 February 2011:

Nick Herbert (Minister of State, Justice; Arundel and South Downs, Conservative)
At present [as the Bill was then drafted], the disqualification criteria are limited to those who have served a sentence of three months or more, which is the same relatively stringent test that applies in local government elections.

However, I have reflected on a general agreement—it is certainly the view of the Association of Chief Police Officers—that the importance of the police and crime commissioner post means that it requires a higher standard.

I agree, because those elected individuals will hold a police force to account, and members of the police force are themselves held to a higher standard for obvious reasons. There is a case, therefore, for treating PCCs differently from those in other elected posts. That is why I brought forward the amendment…

The nature of the post demands a higher standard. The standard is higher than any that has been suggested in either Government or Opposition amendments. It is a stringent measure.

Labour was of the same mind:

Vernon Coaker (Gedling, Labour)
Whatever our differences about the role of the police and crime commissioner, this debate is not about whether the model is right, but about the model working as well as it can and the position having credibility if it is set up. All of us would want that, whether we agree with the model or not.

We cannot overestimate the importance that members of the public will put on the integrity of the person who is standing for police and crime commissioner; it would be inconceivable not to have the most stringent test for a PCC. I am pleased that the Minister agrees and has brought forward the amendment…

As the Minister rightly said, that is an exceptionally tough condition of eligibility to stand, but it is right.

What’s more their further exchanges included this:

Herbert: I do not think that we can agree to such stringency but then say, “They may have committed a relatively minor offence when they were young.”

Coaker: I understand the point he made about the provision applying to any imprisonable offence committed by an under-18. He makes the point very well—this agrees with the point that I am making—that the necessity of the credibility and integrity of the person being above reproach is such that the test has to be the same as for a chief constable, or indeed any police officer. It is simply not tenable to have it otherwise.

Cross-party agreement to do something that front line staff have called for sounds great in theory. As this case shows, it can be far from great in practice.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

Harrow Council has become the first local authority in the country to take its electoral registration online.

As authorities across the country contact residents to ensure their details are added to the electoral register, Harrow will be asking people to respond to the annual canvass online.

The council said residents would be able confirm details “at the click of a button”, avoiding “cumbersome paper forms”. [Public Service; hat-tip: Toby James]

This is not quite as novel as it may sound, because for several years other councils have already being using  electronic ways of people confirming that their existing register details are correct and should be rolled over onto the new register.

Harrow is going one step further than this and its success will depend on three factors: how good the checks in the system are against someone sat at a computer creating numerous bogus entries (the plan to post out security codes does not necessarily protect against this as paperwork can be intercepted, as has happened in cases of postal voting fraud); how good the audit trail is of who did what and when so that suspicions can be properly investigated; and the extent to which this is seen as a way of improving registration levels or of cutting budgets.

On the first two points, it is promising that the details of the scheme involve an extra level of security for people who want to change their details rather than simply confirm an existing register entry.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

The High Court has now ordered a recount:

Denbighshire blamed human error after votes cast for Labour’s Paul Penlington were counted for Allan Pennington.

The council has admitted the Labour candidate would have won if his votes had been correctly allocated…

The recount will take place amidst conditions of strict secrecy in front of a senior High Court official and in the presence of Mr Pennington, Mr Penlington and council representatives.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

GENDER QUOTAS are set to become law after the Electoral Amendment (Political Funding) Bill 2011 passed all stages in the Dáil yesterday.

The legislation, which has yet to be signed by the President, will halve State funding to parties unless 30 per cent of their candidates at the next general election are women. This figure will rise to 40 per cent at subsequent general elections…

The lobby group Women for Election also welcomed the development, but said the legislation would not be enough to encourage more women into politics.

Co-founder Niamh Gallagher said other “proactive” measures, such as mentoring and training, were necessary to encourage more women to run for office.

The legislation has proved contentious in the past, with a small number of Government backbenchers speaking out against it. [Irish Times]

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

Woking Borough Council (WBC) will appear at the High Court later this month after an application was made to declare an election result invalid.

Labour hopeful Mohammad Ali, who came second at the borough council election for the Maybury and Sheerwater ward in May, has submitted the claim, highlighting what he calls ‘persistent electoral irregularities’ including the number of postal votes in the area and rejected ballots.

With the final vote standing at 1,088 to 1,072 in favour of Liberal Democrat incumbent Cllr Mohammed Bashir, Mr Ali, of Walton Road, Maybury, lost out by just 16 votes, and believes a hearing at the High Court would produce sufficient evidence for a recount…

He states: “My agent increased my vote by one by demanding a third recount with a new team of counters, which the ERO (electoral registration officer) initially did not want to do.

“In 2005 all the marked registers were lost so allegations of persistent double voting could not be checked and no explanation was given by the council,” he adds.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

Individual electoral registration has long been pushed for by the Electoral Commission and supported by all three of the main political parties. However, getting the details right is important as this is one of those issues where the administrative details can completely wreck the policy if got wrong.

Key elements of the plan include:

• The move to individual electoral registration will start after the 2014 European Parliament elections.
• “The transition will begin with the confirmation of existing electors. This means that if an elector’s name is on the electoral register when the transition begins, we will try to match their name against information held by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on its Customer Information System. If we can match it, that entry on the register will be confirmed, the elector will be told about this and they will not need to take any further action. Evidence from piloting carried out in 2011 suggests that about two thirds of electors could be confirmed this way, but this process is being tested and refined this year to confirm how it will work in practice.”
• “Where there is no information or some doubt about who lives at an address an ERO will ask the residents to identify who lives at that address and then invite them to apply to register individually. People will be reminded more than once and if they still do not respond, will be visited by a canvasser before a new electoral register is published in December 2014.”
• “If you were on the register before the transition got underway, have not been confirmed on the register and have not yet applied individually, you will stay on the December 2014 register and not lose your vote at the 2015 General Election. However you will have to make a successful new application before December 2015, otherwise your name will be taken off the register.”
• “There will be safeguards in place to ensure that only those who refuse repeated invitations can be fined, and registration officers will have to take specific steps to encourage an application before they can issue a fine.”
• “If an elector is already on the register and has a postal or proxy vote and their details are matched against the DWP records and confirmed on the register, they will be informed and will not have to take any further action to stay on the register and keep their postal or proxy vote. If they are not matched against the DWP records, they will be informed and asked to make an individual application. If they do not do so, they will stay on the register for the 2015 General Election, but lose their postal or proxy vote.”

Individual Electoral Registration Implementation Plan

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.