Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/ldv/public_html/wp-content/plugins/facebook-meta-tags/facebook-metatags.php on line 99

Review of London elections calls for changes in law ahead of 2012

The London Assembly has called for changes in the law ahead of the 2012 London Mayor and Assembly elections, following a review of the lessons from last year’s council and general election in London.

Two issues are likely to meet widespread support, namely the problems of voters being intimidated and people being left still queuing when polls closed at 10pm. Both issues were significant problems in specific parts of London last year.

The report says:

The difficulties identified include most significantly a number of instances where there were queues at polling stations and people were unable to vote. Our report highlights the confusion in applying the electoral law to enfranchise the voter that led in some instances to a breach of election rules. We therefore recommend a change in electoral law to prevent a repeat of the disenfranchisement of so many people in London and across England. Without a change in the law there will need to be new guidance to Returning Officers as to how they can better prepare to deal with any late surge of voters.

A further significant issue addressed in this report is how to stop the intimidation of voters that is taking place at some polling stations. Clear advice to polling staff and consistency in how that advice is acted upon is necessary to tackle this unacceptable behaviour.

City HallMore controversial is likely to be the report’s call for a repeal of the legislation introduced last year to ensure overnight counting of votes for the general election.

The bigger issue that was not covered by this review, by virtue of its rermit, is the mistakes that were made in counting votes at the last London elections. As I wrote at the time:

In the immediate aftermath of this May’s London Mayor and Assembly elections, it became clear that some mistakes had been made during the count. Some Mayor votes in Merton and Wandsworth were omitted from the count, and in addition the checking process was flawed as votes were reported from more wards than exist in London.

Both the Open Rights Group and the Electoral Commission identified further problems, with my summary of the Electoral Commission’s verdict still valid:

In other words, “the numbers don’t add up; we don’t know why; it might be bad, it might not be; but there wasn’t a proper audit trail so we’re all left clueless.”

Counting the votes correctly and having a proper system for checking that the results are right is by far the most important change that needs to happen for the 2012 elections.

Vote of confidence? Lessons Learned from the 2010 General and Local Elections

Read more by or more about or .
This entry was posted in Election law and London.
Advert

5 Comments

  • Tony Greaves 4th Mar '11 - 8:56pm

    The stuff about intimidation is at least as important.

    I would propose a law to say that all the counting in parliamentary elections and similar contests should be done the next day. Overnight counts are ridiculous.

    Tony Greaves

  • Daniel Henry 6th Mar '11 - 8:35pm

    Or perhaps it’s time to explore vote counting technology?

  • Daniel Henry 6th Mar '11 - 11:30pm

    Oh right?
    I couldn’t see a mention in them in the report so maybe they didn’t cause problems, but it sounds like they didn’t manage to compensate for the lack of qualified counting staff either.

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Davies
    @John Marriott. Not many people think a billion is a hundred million. There are still plenty who think it's a million million (the original meaning). The popula...
  • Joseph Bourke
    ‘Pax Americana' superceded Pax Britannica (the relative peace between the great powers in the time period roughly bounded by the Napoleonic Wars and World War...
  • Simon R
    @Steve Trevethan: Might you possibly be confusing 'Donald Trump' with 'The USA'? :-) What Trump says, believes, and does is in many respects not like what many...
  • nvelope2003
    Steve Trevethan. The Americans are like other colonialists. They established their enormously wealthy Republic by stealing other people's land and property and ...
  • nvelope2003
    Alex Macfie: Re My post, for the avoidance of doubt, in line 2 replace the third word with the word "that". I hope this makes the matter clear. Time to get some...