New research shows that by a margin of more than two-to-one the public backs changes to the electoral registration system that would reduce the scope for fraud.
The Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Electoral Commission have all repeatedly called for the system of household registration, currently used in England, Scotland and Wales, to be abandoned in favour of individual registration, as is used in Northern Ireland.
The current system allow one person in a household to fill in a form on behalf of all the people living at an address. However, a system of individual registration could allow the collection of extra personal identifiers to ensure that people are really who they say they are when they take part in the electoral system. The introduction of personal identifiers to the postal voting system has brought a welcome reduction in the opportunities for fraud there, but it still leaves open other avenues of fraud that individual registration would severely curtail.
The Committee on Standards in Public Life this week published their third report into public attitudes towards standards of conduct in public life. It found that nearly two-thirds of the public back a move to individual registration, whilst less than one-third oppose it (63% – 29%).
One question for anyone working in the financial services or police sectors: I have always thought that individual registration would also make fraudulent registration for the purposes of financial fraud much harder and would therefore be widely welcomed in these sectors. Yet I’ve never seen any lobbying by them in favour of this change. Anyone know why?
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In answer to your last point – I work in the Compliance function of a large financial services company in Edinburgh. The Electoral Roll is usually only used as part of an ID process for financial firms, relying more on things like passports and driving licences, as opposed to the only form of ID as in elections.
I’ve always wondered why the only piece of ID I’m ever likely to need to vote is the (easily forged or stolen) piece of card which comes through my letterbox. Surely there could be a better check at the polling station (without the need for pointless ID cards)?
Individual registration would severely diminish the accuracy of the electoral register and massively increase under-registration in urban areas.
David, I know many an Asian area of Preston where individual registration would increase the number of people currently denied access to the electoral process because the “Head of the household” refuses to include them on the forms.
I notice that the complaint you highlight is not the issue in Northern Ireland.
It is very, very strange (but not in the least tiny bit suspect nor two-faced, of course) that New Labour is making titanic efforts to force us to identify ourselves individually in every context; except when we vote.
Mark, I think the answer to your question is that 1) there is no overall lobbying group for financial services compliance officers and anti money laundering officers, and 2) if there was, it would spend its time trying to get rid of some of the other rules first. But you have raised an interesting point…..
“David, I know many an Asian area of Preston where individual registration would increase the number of people currently denied access to the electoral process because the “Head of the household” refuses to include them on the forms.”
Assuming they get to see the form at all though. That said my experience in similar areas is the opposite of people being denied registration but of spurious extra registrations being added.
David’s point is valid though and any system of individual registration would need to be flexible enough to allow registration during the campaign so that people can get on the register after they have realised there is an election on.
IIRC individual registration in Northern Ireland did reduce the number of registered voters.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3227836.stm
I don’t think a province with a reputation for “vote early, vote often” is the best comparison although FWIW the ward with the single largest loss of electorate was, unsurprisingly, the most student dominated in south Belfast.
There is a particular major problem that for a lot of people who live in dwellings of multiple occupancy, including but not limited to student halls of residence and private rented flats, it is very difficult to get individual registration forms into the hands of said citizen without knowing their name. Mail gets sorted by surname and not put directly under individual doors. A lot of address databases are uncertain of the exact arrangements of individual flats, as many will be given quite different versions of what mailing address to give out. (I’ve known a lot of students run into problems with TV Licensing because the address they purchased a licence for in good faith isn’t in the obscure format on the database.) Whilst the current system isn’t perfect, household and hall-wide registration often does a better job of getting people onto the register, especially those with no personal experience of registration.