A Vote of Confidence?

This report from the Assembly's Elections Review Working Group details lessons learned from the 2010 Elections.

The Working Group was established by the Assembly in the wake of concerns about the organisation of the 2010 Elections in London, including some polling stations closing before people in the queue could vote, and increased numbers of late voter registrations and postal votes.

Key recommendations

A Vote of Confidence urges the Government to change the Electoral law to ensure that people are not disenfranchised because of queues. It should also bring forward legislation to repeal the requirement for Returning Officers to begin counting within four hours of the close of parliamentary polls and issue guidance on how Returning Officers can best prepare polling staff to deal with any late surge of voters.

Boroughs should conduct surveys of hourly voting totals to support analysis of voting trends and deploy staffing resources for polling stations in a more effective fashion reflecting data on hourly voter flows through the polling station.

The report also asks London Elects to set out:

• how it will inform members of the public about what the ballot paper will look like, how it will communicate with Londoners’ whose first language is not English and how it will highlight the time of the polls closing.
• how it will support election staff to ensure that there is a consistent approach to contingency planning, including dealing with a late surge in voters, for the 2012 GLA elections.
• the advice it will give to polling staff to deal with groups that gather close to polling stations to ensure that there is no possible intimidation of people as they make their way to vote.

Read the full report, the evidence the Working Group received and responses to the report: