Individual voter registration is the current focus for electoral modernisation in the UK

On Wednesday ORG Executive Director Jim Killock and Advisory Council member Jason Kitcat met Michael Wills MP, a minister in the Ministry of Justice.

We discussed the government’s plans for electoral modernisation in various guises. We were told in no uncertain terms that there were no e-voting or e-counting pilots planned in the foreseeable future. The future of the centralised online electoral register, CORE, also sounded uncertain until new registration standards and processes could be agreed.

Top priorities for the Minister were individual voter registration, a welcome reform which ORG has previous recommended, and completing House of Lords reform. Creating an elected upper chamber isn’t directly an ORG interest, but the type of electoral system finally agreed upon may be used as a reason for further trials of electronic voting, so we’ll be watching that process closely.

Of particularly interest were the Minister’s views on what role, if any, the Ministry of Justice would play in regulating, monitoring or otherwise supporting e-counted elections in Scotland or London. It is likely those two areas will continue to use e-counting and officials from those authorities have expressed a desire for some kind of framework or certification to help them manage and choose suppliers.

The Minister and his officials were clear they did not feel they had the resources to do anything other than offer their experiences from previous pilots. They wouldn’t be mandating or administering any kinds of standards or monitoring of the technology in those elections.

While ORG is still opposed to the introduction of e-voting and e-counting, we want to be constructive as possible with those authorities determined to proceed. Two recommendations from our 2007 election observation report are relevant:

5. An independent technology certification process, with publicly available reports and ongoing evaluation of technologies, should be implemented for systems used in elections.

6. It should be recognised that local authorities bear the burden of delivering elections but have little or no technical expertise, particularly in relation to specialist election systems. Greater support and resources should be made available to authorities using such systems in elections.

It is disappointing, but understandable given limited resources, that the Ministry of Justice do not feel able to take up these recommendations. While we hope the Electoral Commission will take these up as best it’s can, it thus far has not shown itself to have the confidence or resources to provide such a strong role in the running of election technologies.

So a mixed bag overall. We’re pleased there are no pilots planned, welcome the work on individual voter registration but have concerns over the lack of support for those authorities still likely to use e-counting again.