06 June 2003
The government will need to invest heavily to make a success of radical changes to the voting process urged this week by the Electoral Commission.
Proposed reforms include individual rather than household registration, a national electronic register, standardised election timetables, and an end to the candidate deposit requirement.
But the commission's report, Voting for change, warned that the proposals could not be reliably costed at present.
Yvette Cooper, elections minister, said: 'We do not see making voting more convenient as a panacea for addressing issues over low turnout, but successful pilots show significant increases in voter participation.' She hinted that legislation might come before the next general election.
Commission chair Sam Younger admitted there was concern about fraud in all-postal elections, but said these had increased turnout and that controls to prevent fraud 'need to be proportionate'.
Full recommendations on extending postal voting will be issued in late July.
Younger called for a new offence of making a fraudulent application for a postal vote, and a power for the police to arrest anyone on 'reasonable suspicion' of impersonation.
He said: 'We have sought to put the participation of voters at the top of our list of priorities, with the needs of political parties and candidates second. Third is the efficiency and effectiveness of electoral administration.'
The commission recognised that administrators may be unable to cope with the volume of change proposed. It said election administrators were poorly placed to lobby for funds against larger local authority departments. 'We believe that "change without funding" is unsustainable,' the report added.
But the commission admitted it had been unable to quantify the costs of its reforms 'with any degree of precision', and said data on current costs were so vague they were 'liable to provide a weak foundation'. It offered to work with the government, election administrators and the political parties to try to develop a costed model for change.
The commission also found 'real issues about the capacity of electoral registration officers and their staff to cope with an extensive programme of change'.
Elections were regarded as marginal services by most councils, and staff received less training than those in other service areas.
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