Category Archives: Election law

The Election Law Channel is dedicated to coverage of UK election law, giving unrivalled detailed news of election law matters, explaining complex matters in plain English and setting out the practical relevance of technical legal provisions.

Mark Pack

Hackney Council under fire over allegations it misled public about who was standing in election

By Mark Pack | Fri 9th July 2010 - 2:20 pm

The excellent Jack of Kent legal blog has the full details of the brewing story in Hackney, where the council had already been accused of wrongly excluding the manifesto of the Conservative Party’s Mayor candidate, Andrew Boff, from the booklet sent to the public. (The Mayoral elections in Hackney have similar rules to those for Mayor of London, whereby all candidates submit artwork which is then collected in a booklet and sent out to all electors.)

In addition, Hackney Council is now accused of repeatedly misinforming members of the public, telling them that in fact not only was there no …

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Mark Pack

Worth a second outing: What’s the point of switching to individual electoral registration?

By Mark Pack | Fri 9th July 2010 - 10:20 am

Welcome to a series where old posts are revived for a second outing for reasons such as their subject has become topical again, they have aged well but were first posted when the site’s readership was only a tenth or less of what it is currently or they got published and the site crashed, hiding the finest words of wisdom behind an incomprehensible error message. This one is from Spring last year and has been slightly updated.

After a long period of stalling, the Labour Government finally announced in spring 2009 a timetable for switching Britain’s electoral registration system from one …

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Helen Duffett

Election court agrees to examine Oldham East slur leaflet

By Helen Duffett | Wed 30th June 2010 - 9:23 pm

As we reported last month the Liberal Democrat candidate for Oldham East and Saddleworth was petitioning for a hearing of an election court, alleging a breach of the Representation of the People Act (1983).

The BBC now reports:

A court is to examine claims that a Labour Party election leaflet from former minister Phil Woolas linked an opponent to Muslim “extremists”.

An election court has agreed to hear the case brought by Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins.

He claims Labour falsely portrayed him as taking “illegal” foreign donations.

The court could order a fresh election in the Oldham East and Saddleworth

…

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Mark Pack

Scope calls for online voting to assist disabled voters

By Mark Pack | Fri 25th June 2010 - 4:20 pm

The BBC reports:

Online voting should be introduced to assist disabled voters after access to polling stations failed to improve for this year’s election, a charity said.

A Scope survey suggested more than two thirds of the general election polling stations failed basic access tests.

Ms Scott said the country’s voting system “isn’t working for other voters either,” demonstrated by “scores of people queuing outside polling stations” at the recent general election.

“Over the last decade there has been next to no improvement in the overall accessibility of polling stations or postal voting,” she said.

“There is a pressing need for clearer accountability

…

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Mark Pack

Parliament debates electoral administration

By Mark Pack | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 3:20 pm

On Wednesday last week Parliament had a Westminster Hall debate on the subject of electoral administration, triggered by Meg Munn, the Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley. Sheffield was one of the areas particularly badly affected by the problems with people queuing to vote at 10pm on polling day, and it was this issue which dominated her opening remarks. Citing the Electoral Commission’s views on the matter, she urged the government to change the law to enable those who are still queuing at 10pm to be allowed to vote in future.

This proposal received support from other MPs during the debate …

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Mark Pack

UKIP donations case set for Supreme Court

By Mark Pack | Sat 12th June 2010 - 5:42 pm

Left Foot Forward has reported:

The United Kingdom Indpendence Party’s dispute with the Electoral Commission over its refusal to forfeit more than £350,000 of impermissable donations has this week escalated to the Supreme Court…

A spokesman for the commission told Left Foot Forward that there had been 67 instances of UKIP not adhering to the laws on donations by failing to check whether donations of more than £200 were from people on the electoral register, over a period of a year, despite repeated warnings from the commission.

You can read the full piece here.

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Mark Pack

When is a fee a bonus?

By Mark Pack | Sun 6th June 2010 - 9:20 pm

The Daily Telegraph‘s hostile piece about some of the payments being made to Returning Officers from the General Election highlights the unusual way in which key staff are paid for their role in organising elections:

At least six of the officials responsible for the chaos which left hundreds unable to vote have collected substantial bonuses for their work on polling day.

The use of the word “bonus” here is debatable. From one perspective, the payments made to Returning Officers are not bonuses but rather the standard fee payable for running an election. However, the role of being Returning Officer goes with …

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Mark Pack

Oldham election result heading to court

By Mark Pack | Sun 6th June 2010 - 7:50 pm

As we reported last month, the election result in Oldham East and Saddleworth – where Labour’s Phil Woolas hung on by just 103 votes – has triggered complaints from the Liberal Democrat candidate, Elwyn Watkins, that Labour’s campaign broke the law.

The case is now heading to the courts. As the BBC reports,

In the last few days of the campaign, Labour put out a small newspaper which was predominantly an attack on their Liberal Democrat opponent, Elwyn Watkins.

Mr Watkins believes the leaflet falsely portrayed him as a politician courting votes from militant Muslims; not a group known to be particularly

…

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Helen Duffett

Allegations of electoral fraud in Halifax

By Helen Duffett | Tue 1st June 2010 - 5:15 pm

Police are investigating allegations of electoral fraud in Halifax after unusually high numbers of postal ballots were hand-delivered to polling stations on May 6.

From the Independent:

More than 4,000 ballots arrived in the West Yorkshire town on 6 May, with the majority being delivered directly to polling stations. Although there are no rules forbidding the delivery of postal ballots by hand, such a large number arriving on the day of the election itself is considered unusual and risks overwhelming the already-stretched safety checks aimed at minimising fraud.

Local Tory officials raised questions over the validity of some of the postal ballots after they discovered that a number of empty and derelict addresses in one particular ward had voters registered to them. They allege that Labour Party activists spent the days before the election “farming” postal ballots to deliver directly on 6 May and have asked both the police and the Electoral Commission to investigate.

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Helen Duffett

Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins issues a legal challenge over Oldham election result

By Helen Duffett | Fri 28th May 2010 - 1:40 pm

The Liberal Democrat candidate for Oldham East and Saddleworth in the 2010 General Election has challenged the result.

Elwyn Watkins has submitted a petition for a hearing of an election court, alleging a breach of the Representation of the People Act (1983).

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Mark Pack

What standards should Counting Officers have to meet?

By Mark Pack | Sat 22nd May 2010 - 9:20 am

The Electoral Commission is currently consulting on its draft performance standards for Counting Officers in Great Britain, which will supplement the existing standards for Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers. Counting Officers are the people who administer a referendum in a particular area, much like in the London Assembly and Mayor elections the borough returning officers administer the election in their area on behalf of the London Returning Officer.

Here is the response I’ve sent in:

Dear Lindsey Taber,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft performance standards for Counting Officers.

My comments are as follows:

Performance standard 1: Skills and knowledge …

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Helen Duffett

Poor planning and restrictive laws prevented 1,200 from voting on 6 May

By Helen Duffett | Thu 20th May 2010 - 2:43 pm

The Electoral Commission has published its interim report into problems at polling stations on 6 May, when queues left voters unable to cast their votes before the 10pm deadline.

At least 1,200 people were still queuing at 27 polling stations in 16 constituencies at 10pm.

There were scenes of confusion as polling station queues and ballot paper shortages led to problems and protests in several cities. These included students in Sheffield trying to stop ballot boxes being removed, lock-ins in Birmingham, lock-outs in Newcastle and a sit-in in Hackney.

Following the polling day problems Jenny Watson, Chair of the Electoral Commission announced a review, saying,

There is a real need to look at our Victorian system and modernise it fit for a 21st-century democracy.

The Electoral Commission consulted Returning Officers, and appealed to voters to report any difficulties they had experienced on polling day.

Today’s report explains the roles, responsibilities and laws connected with providing and manging polling stations, the scale and nature of problems on 6 May and makes recommendations for change:

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Mark Pack

Election result may be challenged over administrative errors

By Mark Pack | Fri 14th May 2010 - 10:20 am

The Evening Standard reports:

Andrew Dismore is considering lodging an official petition after losing his Hendon seat by just 106 votes to Tory Matthew Offord.

He claims hundreds of would-be voters were prevented from casting their ballot because of failures by Barnet council to organise the election properly.

Mr Dismore, who has held the seat since 1997, claimed procedural and administrative errors by the council included: people queuing at 9pm being told to leave as they would not get in to vote in time; postal votes arriving late or not being sent, and wrong directions to polling stations being given.

You can read …

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Mark Pack

It’s administrative blunders, not fraud, which should worry us most

By Mark Pack | Sun 9th May 2010 - 9:12 pm

The problems with electoral administration ranged far wider than those which caught the headlines. Perhaps the weirdest came in one polling station in Burnley where the caretaker was getting everyone turning up to vote to sign in and out of the building “for health and safety” reasons.

More seriously, there were queues of people left wanting to vote when the polls closed at 10pm last Thursday in Birmingham, Chester, Hackney, Islington, Leeds, Lewisham, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Weybridge. (If you were a voter caught up in these problems, the Electoral Commission wants to hear from you as part of …

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Mark Pack

So why didn’t this teller just say, “Yes, I’m a Conservative”?

By Mark Pack | Thu 6th May 2010 - 6:27 pm

Rather odd behaviour by a Conservative teller in South West Surrey today who turned out to be very reluctant to admit they were telling on behalf of the Conservative Party, as the following video shows:

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Mark Pack

Wrong ballot papers supplied on polling day in Brent

By Mark Pack | Thu 6th May 2010 - 8:56 am

Not a good start to the day in Brent Central, where ballot papers for the wrong Parliamentary constituency had been supplied to all three polling stations Willesden Green ward. Result? Proper voting didn’t actually start until nearly two hours late.

UPDATE: Another problem, this time reported from York: polling cards issued which said polls were open 7am to 10am (i.e. for just three hours). Ooops:

Poll card error - York

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Mark Pack

Labour in legal hot water over poll cards

By Mark Pack | Wed 5th May 2010 - 1:30 pm

Dating back to times when unscrupulous campaigns issues fake poll cards directly people to the wrong places to vote, the law says:

No person shall for the purpose of promoting or procuring the election of any candidate at a parliamentary election issue any poll card or document so closely resembling an official poll card as to be calculated to deceive (1983 Representation of the People Act)

Although the original motivation for that legislation is now long in the past, it’s still the law in force – and so the law campaigns have to follow. As The Times has pointed out, using …

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Mark Pack

Postal ballots are not the same as postal vote application forms

By Mark Pack | Mon 3rd May 2010 - 2:20 pm

The Guardian today seems to confuse application forms for postal votes with the actual ballot papers that postal voters receive:

At the weekend David Monks, head of elections for the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, called for a ban on political parties handling postal votes amid fears that activists are collecting ballot papers before forwarding them on in order to record the results in their canvassing process. This breaches a national code of conduct, but is not illegal.

Activists taking postal ballot papers and then recording the voting intention from them would leave them open to legal action (e.g. undue …

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Mark Pack

Second police investigation into publication of postal vote information

By Mark Pack | Sun 2nd May 2010 - 9:20 pm

During the week Alex Foster blogged about the case of Bristol East Labour MP Kerry McCarthy who is facing a police investigation following a tweet giving voting figures from a postal vote opening.* She subsequently deleted the tweet and apologised but we await the outcome of the police investigation.

I now hear there is a second police investigation taking place, this time into a Scottish blogger who published information that was apparently supplied by the SNP based on postal vote opening in several constituencies. The post (subsequently removed) appeared on SNP Tactical Voting and made reference to three different …

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Mark Pack

Electoral administration isn’t going quite as well as it should…

By Mark Pack | Sat 1st May 2010 - 11:20 am

First, the good news: all the reports so far indicated a strong surge in people registering just before the deadline earlier this month. The Independent has some further figures to add to earlier reports. Thankfully, Havering Council with its hostile approach to people using the Electoral Commission’s website seems to be very much the exception. Whilst its electoral division has called “ridiculous” the number of people registering at the last moment, other councils have welcomed the surge of interest rather than criticised it.

Then the not so good news…

Allegations of postal vote fraud: the scale of the allegations, …

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Alex Foster

Note to agents: do not publish anything you learn at postal vote opening

By Alex Foster | Thu 29th April 2010 - 4:35 pm

Twitter has come alive in the last two hours with tweets and retweets of Labour’s new media Tsarina Kerry McCarthy, who appears to have attended a postal vote opening session in her constituency of Bristol East – and then tweeted her tally totals.

Just to be clear, this is illegal. You should not do it. If you are attending postal vote processing sessions or are an agent yourself, please make sure your entire team knows that anything you learn at that session cannot be shared.

Mark Pack has the full listing of the section of the law that applies …

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Mark Pack

Media ups its game with improved donation reporting

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th April 2010 - 3:20 pm

The latest round of election donations published by the Electoral Commission have seen a much more accurate set of media reports than previous figures.

As I’d previously pointed out the figures published by the Electoral Commission are far from comprehensive as they exclude small donations and also all donations, of any size, given directly to candidates. However the media reports have previously treated the figures for declarable donations given to parties as if they were actual donation totals.

This time round though, helped by the Commission making its news release (even) clearer, the media has mostly got it right. Who …

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Mark Pack

Electoral Commission responds to misreporting of donation figures

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th April 2010 - 5:20 pm

Welcome news from the Electoral Commission who have agreed to make their reports of donations to parties clearer. As I blogged last week, the figures for donations to the parties during the first stage of the general election have been widely misreported. Media reports presented the figures as if they were the totals of actual donations received, but in fact:

The numbers are misleading for two reasons:

  • They are (only) for donations to parties. As I’ve previously pointed out, donations made direct to candidates during the election campaign period are excluded from these figures.
  • The figures only include donations which are

…

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Mark Pack

Thirsk & Malton election delayed after candidate dies

By Mark Pack | Sat 24th April 2010 - 10:40 am

Sad news from Yorkshire: John Boakes, UKIP candidate for Thirsk & Malton, has died. This means the election will be delayed with polling now taking place on 27 May. During to the change in law following a similar tragedy in 2005, existing nominations roll forward but UKIP is permitted to nominate a new candidate.

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Mark Pack

Well done Parliament

By Mark Pack | Thu 22nd April 2010 - 12:20 pm

Perhaps not the fashionable thing to say these days, but Parliament deserves credit for getting one legal change right: altering the law a while back so that the deadline for joining the electoral register falls during a general election campaign rather than before it.

This time that means the deadline for registration fell on Tuesday – after several days of heavy media coverage about the election and after the surge in interest from younger people courtesy of the first TV debate.

Imagine all the frustrations if people have been enthused and then found the law meant it was too late to sort …

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Mark Pack

Havering Council flirts with breaking election law

By Mark Pack | Wed 21st April 2010 - 12:20 pm

Until yesterday, Havering Council was telling residents that it would reject any rolling registration applications that were not made on the council’s own form – despite the fact that such rejections would be a breach of the law. In a bizarre twist, it also meant that Havering Council was telling people who had filled in an electoral registration form via the Electoral Commission’s heavily advertised website, AboutMyVote.co.uk, that those applications were invalid.

As one resident who used the Electoral  Commission’s site reported, he received a letter from the council saying,

We do not accept internet forms.

and warning that unless a second …

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Mark Pack

General election donations: two reasons the media will report them wrongly

By Mark Pack | Wed 21st April 2010 - 9:10 am

The latest figures for party donations are out from the Electoral Commission and already we’ve seen reports which simply take the numbers at face value.

Of course, that’s an understandable thing for the media to do: regulator publishes numbers, you report them.

However, the numbers are misleading for two reasons:

  • They are (only) for donations to parties. As I’ve previously pointed out, donations made direct to candidates during the election campaign period are excluded from these figures.
  • The figures only include donations which are large enough to have to be reported to the Electoral Commission. Small donations are excluded from the

…

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Mark Pack

Election timetable: this week’s deadlines

By Mark Pack | Mon 19th April 2010 - 9:00 am

The deadlines coming up this week are:

  • Deadline for submitting electoral registration request in order to be able to vote at the election: Tuesday 20 April
  • Close of nominations for general election: 4pm on Tuesday 20 April
  • Deadline for appointment of election agents for general election: 4pm on Tuesday 20 April
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Mark Pack

Does the location of polling stations change how people vote?

By Mark Pack | Tue 13th April 2010 - 7:20 pm

Daniel Finkelstein poses the question, based on the finding of an academic survey:

The fact that polling stations are generally located in schools and other public buildings influences how people vote . It makes proposals to protect school funding more potent.

More in his post over on The Times.

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Mark Pack

What is Labour planning on electoral registration?

By Mark Pack | Mon 12th April 2010 - 8:13 pm

As NextLeft pointed out on Twitter, Labour’s manifesto launch included a promise about electoral registration:

Labour will act ‘and legislate if necessary’ to end ‘unacceptable situation were 3m eligible voters cannot vote because not registered’

Anyone who qualifies to register is already legally obliged to, so what might this reference to possible legislation mean?

It could mean making the punishment for non-registration more stringent. It’s rare for someone to be prosecuted and it would be very much in line with the style of Labour’s approach to other issues to go for tougher punishments. However, whilst the reasons for non-registration have often been …

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