EA Bulletin: 401 England
In this week's Bulletin...
- Report on the 2024 UK Parliamentary general election and the May 2024 elections.
- Welcome to your Vote Week 2025
- May 2025 guidance update
- Postal vote re-application letters
Report on the 2024 UK Parliamentary general election and the May 2024 elections.
Today (Wednesday 13 November), we published our report on the 2024 UK Parliamentary general election and the May 2024 elections in England and Wales. The report looks at how the elections were run, how voters and campaigners found taking part, and what lessons can be learned for the future.
Overall, we found that the May and July 2024 elections were well-run, and voters continue to have high levels of confidence and satisfaction in the polls. Electoral administrators delivered in challenging circumstances but there was evidence of new layers of risk and complexity adding to an already stretched process. The capacity and resilience of suppliers remain a key concern for administrators, as well as ensuring fully functional, joined up digital systems.
Other findings include:
- Postal voting systems did not work well enough for some voters this year, which meant that they did not receive their postal votes in time to return before polling day. The reasons for this included a lack of understanding about the time required to process and issue postal ballot packs and the availability of proxy voting, an increase in absent vote applications close to the deadline, and the fact the election coincided with the summer holiday period in some parts of the UK.
- The voting options for overseas electors did not work well enough with just over half (52%) of registered overseas voters who chose to vote by post successfully returning their ballot paper in time to be counted in the general election.
- While administrators provided support to disabled voters – almost all polling stations provided most accessibility items as set out in guidance – many people were still unaware of the assistance available to them at polling stations.
- The general election saw a record number of candidates standing and voters were able to hear a wide range of views. However, many experienced unacceptable levels of intimidation and harassment, in particular women and candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds. Over half of the respondents to our candidate survey said they avoided some form of campaigning because of fear of abuse.
Our recommendations
We have identified a number of significant improvements to support participation and trust in future elections. These include:
- Improving awareness of the accessibility support available at polling stations, including through the provision of clearer information both online and offline.
- Reforming absent voting processes (including postal voting and voting by proxy) to improve the service for voters and strengthen resilience for future elections. Key areas for potential reform include:
- Improving the information given to voters before and after they apply to vote by post
- Considering whether the current deadline for postal vote applications allows enough time to process and issue postal votes
- More flexible rules for reissuing postal votes to voters who have not received theirs
- Identifying ways for overseas voters to be able to vote securely and in time. Key areas for potential improvement include looking at the current application deadlines and exploring alternative methods of getting ballot papers to voters.
- Tackling the issue of abuse and intimidation of candidates and campaigners. We are committed to working with partners across the wider electoral community to understand what is driving abuse and intimidation, and to collectively develop effective responses to tackle these problems.
- Reviewing whether the candidate nominations process should be strengthened to make it harder for candidates to mislead voters about their true identity.
- Addressing the challenges to the resilience of the electoral system, including funding. The UK Government has recently announced a strategic review of electoral registration, and this should consider whether the funding to run general elections continues to be appropriate and adequate to deliver in a way that meets voters’ expectations.
- Improving digital systems to better support electoral administrators. The UK Government should work with the electoral community to continue to improve the digital systems that it provides and ensure it carefully manages the implementation of changes to digital systems.
With the next scheduled general election five years away, there is an opportunity to make important reforms to ensure the system is ready and resilient. We are ready to work with the UK government and wider electoral community to ensure the system is best placed to support those that deliver elections. We are committed to the importance of implementing changes in enough time for the electoral community to prepare in advance of future elections.
You can read our findings and recommendations in full in our report.
Welcome to your vote week 2025
Every year we ask schools and youth groups to join us in celebrating democracy by delivering democratic education with their students and young people. Welcome to Your Vote Week will be taking place from Monday 10 March to Sunday 16 March 2025.
We aim to support young people to develop the knowledge and confidence they need to cast their vote and discover other ways to get involved in democracy. Welcome to Your Vote Week provides a time in the year for teachers and educators to start the conversation with their young people.
Sign up now to take part in Welcome to Your Vote Week 2025 and receive free resources ahead of the week to help you get involved.
Our year-round education resources are also available to support you to take part in the week. These include:
• a series of six lesson plans, tailored to the curriculum
• short activities for youth groups or in form time or registration
• youth facing information including quizzes and animated videos
More information on Welcome to Your Vote Week can be found here. If you have any questions about the week, please contact [email protected]
May 2025 elections: guidance update
As set out in Bulletin 399, we have now updated our core guidance and resources for Returning Officers at local government elections and Combined (County) Authority Returning Officers for the scheduled polls on 1 May 2025. The updates are minor amendments only which reflect feedback and learning from the May polls and the UKPGE in July, including reflecting the additional advice we provided in advance of these polls on managing the security of the electoral process, as well as the removal of outstanding caveats relating to recent legislative changes that were in place before the May 24 polls.
We have also published additional guidance for County Returning Officers to support their delivery of the county council elections.
As you will be aware, The Voter Identification (Amendment of List of Specified Documents) Regulations 2024, has been laid in Parliament and is expected to be in force for the polls on 1 May 2025. The regulations provide for Veterans Cards (MOD Form 100) to be an accepted form of photographic ID and also provide a clarification relating to Commonwealth passports and an amendment relating to the Scottish National Entitlement Card (Scottish NEC).
Once the legislation has been made, we will publish updates to our guidance and resources to reflect these changes. The May 2025 polling station handbook will also reflect these new requirements. We will notify you through the Bulletin, once these updates have been published.
We are also currently finalising updates to our guidance for candidates and agents and will republish these for the May 2025 scheduled polls in December. Again, the updates are minor amendments following the May polls and the UKPGE in July.
As always, we will notify you through the Bulletin when any further updates to the guidance and additional resources are published.
If you have any queries, or need any further support, please contact your local Commission team.
Postal vote re-application letters
In Bulletin 400 we provided links to postal vote re-application letters to support you with the requirement to write out to domestic electors who have a postal vote arrangement in place which is due to expire on the 31 January of each year.
Whilst you may send your postal vote re-application letters to any affected electors now, you should not cancel any postal votes as a result of a failure to re-apply until after the deadline of 31 January 2026.
You can find more information in our guidance on the process for informing postal voters of the requirement to re-apply and in our guidance on the contents of the postal vote re-application notification, which should be read alongside the template reapplication letter.
Should you have any queries about the process, or require any further support, please contact your local commission team who will be happy to help.