Preparing for and Conducting Election Day:
John BennettGreater London Returning Officer
Systems and Logistics
Conducting elections
• Planning
• Preparation
• Public awareness and voter education
• Absent voting
• Poll
• Count
• Review
Role of technology
Consider –
• What we use
• What is possible
• What we aspire to in the near future
Law Commission: 11th Programme of Law ReformElection rules• Different sets of rules for each type of election• Inconsistencies or duplications
Election offences• Criminal law or public law• Criminal court, judicial review or statutory appeal
Amending legislation• Primary or secondary• Synchronising with the devolved institutions
Technology• Legislation pre-dates technological advances
Technology – getting ready
Planning
• Scheduling
• Dependencies
• Prompts
• Reports to SRO
Public awareness and voter education
• Print and broadcast media
• Going digital – push / pull
• Website, Youtube
• Facebook, Twitter, texting
GLA elections 2008 - the communications campaign
4 main strands
Advertising
Mayoral address booklet
PR and media liaison
Website / digital
Advertising campaign
www.londonelects.org.uk
Pilot activity
“Traditional”• Street teams• Polish, Chinese and African communities• Electoral Commission targeted students• ‘Mark’.
Mobile phones• Text message platform• Polling station finder service
Results
• 2.6 million page views of website• Registration increased 151,000• Turnout increased 500,000 (+25%)• Spoiled ballots reduced c.50%• Awareness of campaign very high in post- election research
(c.55%)
Technology – delivering the projectPreparationRegistration Voter lists / poll cards
Nominations Ballot paper design
Staffing Ballot paper allocations
Absent votingVoter lists Recording returns
Checking PVSs
PollVoter lists Communication
Electoral challenges
• Biggest single electoral event in UK• 5.8m electors• Most diverse electorate in the world.• 200+ languages spoken • Some communities relatively isolated• Lowest voter registration in UK• Low turnout (up from 37% in 2004 to 45% in 2008))• 3 different voting systems (3 papers, 4 votes)• 3,800 polling stations, 12,000 staff• 650,000 postal votes
Technology – making it count
Manual counting of ballot papers• Checking BPAs
• Verification
• Calculation of results
• Publishing results
Electronic counting of ballot papers• Full service
• Speed with accuracy
• Detailed data
Technology – when it’s over
Review• Validation of results (if needed)
• Library of raw data
• Analysis for forward planning
A wish-list for the future
Online registration• Adding to or amending the voter list
• Applying for absent or proxy vote
Remote electronic voting• Part of multi-channel voting programme
• Vote anywhere
• Real-time validation of voter ID
• Avoidance of rejected ballot papers
What we would need for REV
Security• Better protection for online systems (hacking, DoSA)
• Secure storage of personal data
Confidence• User assurance
• Public acceptance
Enablement• Legislation
• Funding
Review
• Are we using technology securely?
• Are we using technology effectively?
• Are we using technology as much as we could?
• How far and how fast should we extend the use of technology?
Questions?
John BennettGreater London Returning OfficerGreater London Authority020 7983 [email protected]
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