Guest article by Charles Lasham, Independent Election Consultant
Electoral Pilot Schemes 2000-2007
Since 2000, the Electoral Commission for the United Kingdom (
www.electoralcommission.org.uk)
encouraged local authorities in England to undertake pilot schemes that test new methods of voting and voting arrangements at local government elections which, if successful, might be adopted more widely. Between 2000 and 2007 there were six separate rounds of electoral pilot schemes. Pilots have included advance voting, all-postal voting pilots, multi-channel electronic voting and e-counting.
Electronic voting
The May 2007 elections saw five local authorities pilot a range of e-voting solutions, including remote internet voting, telephone voting and the provision of electronic polling stations enabling a ‘vote anywhere’ environment on polling day. In broad terms, the remote e-voting elements of the May 2007 pilot schemes proved successful and facilitated voting, although there were some issues concerning accessibility, public understanding of the pre-registration process and, in at least one pilot area, technical problems in relation to telephone voting. However, in common with the e-counting pilots, there was insufficient time available to implement and plan the pilots, and the quality assurance and testing was undertaken too late and lacked sufficient depth.
The Commission recommended that no further e-voting is undertaken until the following four elements are in place:
• There must be a comprehensive electoral modernization strategy outlining how transparency, public trust and cost effectiveness can be achieved.
• A central process must be implemented to ensure that sufficiently secure and transparent e-voting solutions that have been tested and approved can be selected by local authorities.
• Sufficient time must be allocated for planning e-voting pilots.
• Individual voter registration must be implemented.
And the Commission concluded that it “cannot support any further e-voting in the absence of a framework incorporating these recommendations. “
Electronic counting
The issues surrounding e-counting at the May 2007 elections were considered to be complex and far-reaching. The elections saw six local authorities pilot e-counting, with mixed outcomes. While e-counting was successfully implemented in three authorities, the failure of the e-counting solutions in the three other local authorities resulted in the counts taking significantly longer than a normal manual count would have done.
The Commission believes that the piloting process has largely achieved its objective for e-counting and the Commission concluded that:
• Substantial testing must be undertaken;
• Sufficient time must be allowed for the development of e-counting projects;
• Measures must be in place to ensure that current best practice is adopted.
One area where e-counting has been tried and tested successfully in the UK is in Greater London. The Greater London Returning Officer and the Office of London Elects (
www.londonelects.org.uk) have taken unprecedented steps to ensure visibility, transparency and accuracy in the use of electronic vote counting technology since 1999. There will be three different voting systems in place for the three elections to be held in London on 3rd May, 2012. These are the biggest single set of elections in the United Kingdom with the election of the Mayor of London and 25 Assembly members. There will be over 5 million electors, using 4000 polling stations and there are 4 votes for each elector with three different electoral systems and three different coloured ballot papers.
maria.kellner - 6. Dec, 10:36
