Council to implement changes after critical report on handling of elections

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is to make improvements to the way it runs elections services, following a critical report by the Association of Electoral Administrators.

The AEA was brought in by the local authority to examine events prior to the elections in May, when postal ballot papers for residents in both the Burslem Park and the Little Chell and Stanfield wards were issued out of sequence from the postal vote statements within their packs. This meant all postal vote packs had to be reissued.

Problems had also arisen because of staffing issues in the run-up to the elections, with the acting returning officer, and electoral services and legal support manager, both becoming unwell and being unable to take a further part in the process.

Candidates and agents meanwhile raised a number of concerns at the election counts, where the results for all three Stoke-on-Trent Parliamentary seats were delayed.

Stoke noted how the review, led by AEA chief executive John Travers, had found that none of the election results were affected by any errors in the way that both the Parliamentary and local elections were conducted.

No challenge of the results by way of an election petition was made by any candidate, the report added, while the administration issues which led to the reissuing of postal votes had had “no effect on the final outcome”.

The AEA report did, however, make a series of recommendations in relation to: electoral registration; absent voting; elections; election fees; and the approach of senior management.

Stoke said it had already taken a number of steps to implement the report, including:

• Reviewing the permanent staffing structure with recruitment to new management posts.
• Creating and maintaining a procedure manual for electoral registration.
• Establishing a project board to oversee plans for future elections.
• Carrying out a full data check for all permanent postal voters.
• Moving the preparation and issuing of postal vote packs to an external specialist.
• Revising training documentation for all temporary staff employed in any election roles.
• Investigating the possible use of alternative venues for future election counts.
• Revising the process for receiving and moving ballot boxes from polling stations to the count.

Assistant director for governance Fiona Ledden said: “The way the elections were conducted in May fell short of our usual high standards. There were a number of factors that contributed to that, and to all residents, candidates, agents and anyone else who may have been impacted by this, we sincerely apologise.

“Immediately after the election, we arranged for an independent review by the leading national body for administrating elections so that we could better understand the issues, learn from the experience and ensure that we provide the best possible service, with the right processes in place, for the future.

“We asked for the review to be as thorough and self-critical as possible, and it has included extensive evidence gathered from candidates, agents and a wide range of other people involved in the election process. These steps have been crucial for us to perform a clear ‘health check’ on the service and so that we can clearly identify recommendations and actions to take.”

Ledden added: “We have been working with the Association of Electoral Administrators for some months now, and we started to take action straight away following May’s elections to bring improvements to the service.

“It is important to note that, while we did have a number of complaints about the way the elections were conducted, we received no formal challenges or election petitions. But we’d like to reassure residents that we have taken the issue very seriously and investigated the whole process thoroughly. We are now putting in place robust plans to strengthen the service and improve operations for the future.”