Agenda item

(Returning Officer) To consider the attached report.

The Select Committee received a report regarding the Parliamentary and Local Elections 2015 – Lessons Learnt from the Returning Officer for the District Council.

 

The report discussed planning processes and implementation for the elections held on 7 May 2015, the results of which were the election of a Member of Parliament for the Epping Forest Constituency, one Councillor was returned for each of eighteen District Council wards and ten Parish Council elections took place with six contested wards.

 

This election followed the first year when the Council was required to implement Individual Electoral Registration (IER). Work undertaken to encourage further registration had prompted some 5,000 changes to the IER register, published in 2014.

 

Staffing

 

The levels of staffing for polling stations, verification and counts were adequate, it was noted that Service Directors were helpful in making officers available for all the processes.

 

Ballot Paper Printing

 

All of the election papers were printed by the Council’s Reprographics Section, which, as before, provided an excellent service. The proofs of all District Council and Parish Council ballot papers were scrutinised carefully and all ballot papers were printed correctly. Manual checks were also made of each printed ballot paper, no errors were subsequently detected or reported at polling stations.

 

It was advised that nationally, there was an issue regarding a late change made to the logo of the Green Party. The Electoral Commission had agreed the change but had not transmitted this information effectively to Returning Officers. The Acting Returning Officer decided not to print new ballot papers and informed the agent so there was no confusion created for voters.

 

Due to the number of ballot papers required for the Parliamentary election it was necessary to engage an external printer for the 75,000 ballot papers. The split between internal printing for local elections and external for national ones worked well, it was recommended to continue with this for the 2016 Police and Crime Commissioner election where 100,000 ballots would be required.

 

Postal Votes

 

During the run up to the election, both Harlow and Brentwood Councils informed the District Council that they would not be issuing Postal Voting Packs for District and parish elections falling in their Parliamentary areas. This meant that postal voters in those areas received postal packs from two different issuing authorities at different times. Although it was found that voters were able to deal with having two sets of papers, the District Council did get complaints that Brentwood postal packs had not arrived until shortly before the election.

 

The issue of postal votes for Epping Forest went smoothly. Nearly 10,000 postal voting packs were sent out, the most ever. Although there was no evidence of any postal vote fraud, 150 postal votes were rejected for various reasons. Regulations brought in recently required the Electoral Registration Officer to inform electors, after a poll, that their postal vote identifiers had been rejected.

 

Election Day Issues

 

All polling stations opened on time with no access issues. This year, four polling stations were changed due to unavailability of previous locations, no issues were raised in connection with these stations.

 

In Epping, where there were both District and Town Council elections, it was discovered at poll opening that Town Council ballot papers had been issued to transposed stations in the Hemnall and St. John’s wards. Immediate action was taken to suspend the issuing of these ballots and corrected papers were taken to the polling stations. Those ballots issued incorrectly were subsequently rejected at the count and were shown as being rejected on the results sheets published. This situation was due to human error and the following revised processes had been agreed:

 

(a)  All ballot paper books would have labels on their front covers saying which ward and election they were for;

 

(b)  All ballot papers issued would be systematically double checked against issue lists for boxes generated by the computer system; and

 

(c)  All presiding officers would double check their allocations and also be reminded of the need to double check their ballot papers on collection.

 

The Returning Officer reiterated his apologies for this error which could have had an effect on the results in the Hemnall Town Council ward, however no appeal had been forthcoming within the statutory timescales and the result was therefore beyond challenge.

 

This year the ARO had taken the decision to continue with local conventions relating to tellers and issued instructions via presiding officers ensuring consistent practice across the stations. Additionally “meet and greet” staff were used at barrier stations, these arrangements worked well with only minor issues.

 

It was advised that as part of the national election the Government opted to fund Post Office sorting centre sweeps on the evening of the poll. Only a handful of packs were delivered (six) through this process and twenty-six were delivered in the normal post on the Friday. At a cost of approximately £600, this did not constitute a good use of public funds.

 

Verification and Counts

 

Verification and counting of parliamentary ballot papers took place at Debden Park High School enabling a larger number of count staff to be employed. Counting started as soon as the polling finished, the process going smoothly. The final declaration of the Parliamentary seat was made at around 3.45p.m.

 

Appropriate publicity was made available at all stages with links to the Council’s website. There was significant media interest and the Council provided effective media facilities at the count.

 

The District Council and the Parish Council election counts were undertaken from 1.00p.m. on Friday 8 May 2015. These counts were completed very quickly.

 

Arrangements were made with the North Essex Parking Partnership to relax the enforcement of parking restrictions on single yellow lines in the vicinity of Theydon Bois Village Hall, additionally refreshments were made available at the Count, which were well received by those attending.

 

 

Police Liaison

 

Discussions were held with Essex Police prior to the election. Polling stations received visits during the day and there were no instances requiring immediate police presence outside of the regular visits. Police support was also provided at the Count Centres on both Thursday evening and on Friday at Theydon Bois. The Returning Officer thanked Sergeant A Alcock from the Epping Forest and Brentwood Local Policing Hub and his officers for their help and assistance.

 

Complaints and Queries Received in the Elections Office

 

There were few telephone calls made to the Elections Office on 7 May, these concerned a few software issues sorted out by polling station staff enabling voters to vote, confusion around Government website wording regarding postal votes for overseas electors, some people had failed to update their registration in time and requests for emergency proxy votes, many of which did not fit the medical criteria.

 

Post-Election Consultations/Comments

 

Every agent had been written to asking for comments in relation to the running of the election. Only one response had been received by the time of agenda publication which concerned Budworth Hall Chipping Ongar polling station. Tellers there had experienced difficulties there as the gap between departing voters and tellers made number collection difficult. Officers had advised that Budworth Hall had no inside area for tellers to sit and use of the main entrance would mean difficult access for those with disabilities. There had otherwise been no comments in relation to the use of this station.

 

The Candidate’s Evening, held on 16 April, was better attended than last year. All parties were encouraged to attend as it provided essential information about the running of the election.

 

Future Elections/Canvass

 

In May 2016 the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Election would be held, in addition, elections for a third of the district council seats and approximately half of the parish/town councils. The timing of the PCC election would be determined by the Police Area Returning Officer (PARO), however it was advised that the election was likely to be held on Friday 6 May 2016.

 

The Canvass for 2015 posed a significant challenge to deliver a level of accuracy ad registration similar to this year. Officers were aware that going forward, there would be a number of local planning referendum, an EU referendum and a combined election in 2016.

 

Members advised officers that the current polling stations in Buckhurst Hill were inadequate for some voters as they were at extreme ends of their respective wards. Officers replied that there was a periodic review of polling stations undertaken by the Council, one had been completed last year. Any concerns could be discussed there, however officers were also reliant on local knowledge regarding the feasibility of buildings that could be used as polling stations.

 

Members extended their thanks to the Electoral Team for their hard work on the elections.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the review of the Parliamentary and Local Elections held on 7 May 2015 be agreed.