Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
The Electoral Modernisation Programme
in the United Kingdom
Paul Docker
Head of Electoral Modernisation
Department for Constitutional Affairs
CoE Conference
November 2006
Vision
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
Multi-channel elections which:
• Meet needs of modern lifestyles
• Improve access
• Maintain / increase security
• Improve administrative efficiency
“A 21st century democracy should provide a
variety of ways of voting that reflect modern
lifestyles” e-Envoy; In the Service of Democracy – 2002
The UK approach
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
• Trials in binding elections
• Maintaining a healthy scepticism
• Relying heavily on independent evaluation
and agreed standards (CoE)
• Developing robust systems & accreditation
including use of EML
• Scaling up where opportunities allow and
systems require
UK Government’s strategy
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
• A first programme of pilots in binding
elections
- 2002 to 2005
• leading to extensive e-enabled:
• local government elections - 2007 to 2010
• Greater London Assembly elections - 2008
• Scottish Parliament, Welsh and
Northern Ireland Assembly elections?
• European Parliamentary elections?
• and leading to an e-enabled general election
The benefits of piloting
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
• Testing in a real world environment
• Learning lessons
• Building for the future:
voter experience
local authority appetite
technical experience
developing political will
Electoral Pilots - a brief history
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
• Since enabling legislation in 2000 over 150
electoral pilot schemes involving some 100
local authorities
• 2003 Electoral Pilots covered over 6.4
million electors in 59 electoral pilots
• 17 (centrally funded) e-voting pilots
delivering: Internet, kiosks, SMS, telephone
and interactive digital TV
2003 Electoral Pilots Summary
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
• 1.4 million voters able to participate in
e-voting pilots
• 27% of voters offered e-voting used the new
methods available
• In comparable areas where piloting took place
in 2002, voting using e channels increased by
over 50%
• 2003 e-voting pilot areas had an average
turnout of 37.5% compared to the national
average of 33%
The ‘hiatus’ in 2004 and
2005
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
2004 - concentration on all-postal pilots
• Ministers keen to use gains in postal voting
• Coincided with Birmingham fraud issues
2005 - General election - no power to pilot
Need to address issues around postal voting
became a priority
Pilot developments
in May 2006
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
Concentrated on security and administrative changes
plus e-counting
• pilots to improve the security of the election e.g. use of
barcodes, signature checking (Contributed to Act in July
2006) ;
• pilots which improved access for electors, e.g. early voting,
mobile voting and alternative polling locations;
• pilots which improved administrative efficiency e.g.
electronic counting of traditional and/or postal ballots;
What we want to test
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
•Central Procurement
•Direction to suppliers – e.g. pre-registration
•Testing what we want – e.g. different marks in ecounting, different languages, ensuring accuracy of
ballot completion
•Procurement based on CoE Standards
•2007 onwards we will pilot:
 traditional and additional polling stations
 Remote e-voting – Internet and Telephone voting
 ‘de-centralisation’ of voting to improve accessibility
E-voting - specific issues for UK
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
• Fraud - increase in Postal Vote security
requirements
• Maintaining public confidence in election systems
• Media and perceptions - UK and abroad
• Capacity of local authorities to deliver
• Supply -v- Demand - getting what we want not
necessarily what is already available
• Political support
Conclusion
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
• Looking to push forward on e-voting
• We are focused on addressing the key
issues in the current climate - security,
perceptions first …. scalability later
• We are looking to learn from recent
experiences
• Looking forward to working with you and
others
Constitution Directorate
Strengthening democracy and rights
Contacts:
[email protected]
+44 (0)20 7210 8221
[email protected]
+44 (0)20 7210 8308