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 4203john.bennett@london.gov.ukwww.londonelects.org.uk