In late 2007, in our response to Ron Gould’s report on the Scottish elections and in a report on the state of electoral administration in the UK, we said that we would examine the structures for the delivery of elections and consider whether changes are needed to avoid repeating the problems which we saw in 2007. We heard from a wide range of people during our review, and there was broad agreement on the need for some significant changes, to improve the capacity of those responsible for electoral administration to provide a consistently high quality of service for electors, wherever they live. However, there was little consensus as to whether fundamental reform, including removing responsibility for electoral administration in Great Britain from local government, is needed.
Changing times
We have identified a number of important changes that should be made to ensure that electoral administration structures can move forward with voters at their heart. Above all, we want to strengthen the role of independent electoral administration professionals to ensure their operational role in running elections is clearly distinct from the development of election policy by government, and our performance-oversight role.
‘We are still trying to run twenty-first century elections with nineteenth century structures’
Sam Younger, Chair, the Electoral Commission
We have recommended that electoral administration professionals in Great Britain should establish Electoral Management Boards, to provide coordination, leadership and support for the delivery of elections and electoral registration. The boards should strengthen and support the independent and professional delivery of electoral administration, and should be made up of all those responsible for running elections.
We recommend that each Board should be led by a Chair, or Convener in Scotland, who should be given powers to issue directions to local Returning Officers and Electoral Registration Officers. We want to ensure that, through these Boards, a more consistent and high-quality service is delivered to electors across Great Britain.
We have also recommended that the legal framework and funding arrangements for elections in Great Britain should be rationalised and simplified. In particular, we believe that the UK Government should consider the financial and practical implications of establishing a UK-wide electoral registration service.
Finally, we also recognise that the Commission has a role to play in ensuring that high standards for the delivery of electoral administration are met. We want to see electoral administration professionals across the UK reporting against consistent standards on their performance in running elections and in encouraging people to register to vote.
Moving forward
We have already begun discussing our proposals with Returning Officers, government departments and others and we believe there will be significant opportunities in the next year to build on the planning and coordination structures in place for the June 2009 European Parliamentary elections. Although formal legal recognition and powers will be important, electoral administration professionals can and should begin looking into these changes.
We don’t believe that change in electoral administration can be avoided or postponed. In particular we continue to press for a move to individual electoral registration across Great Britain, as already exists in Northern Ireland. We also expect that the development of the UK Government’s Co-ordinated Online Record of Electors (CORE) project will have significant implications for electoral registration.
Read our report for the UK (PDF) and report for Scotland (PDF).
