ELECTORAL ADMINISTRATION BILL

KEY MEASURES

• Establishes new offences around electoral fraud (including fraudulent application for a postal vote) and extending the offence for personation.
• Simplifies and improve security of postal voting by introducing marked registers of postal votes received and statutory secrecy warnings to prevent people influencing others' voting intentions.
• Enables people to register to vote until nearer to the election date.
• Introduces anonymous registration for vulnerable people.
• Enables Returning Officers to provide guidance to voters in a variety of languages and formats.
• Introduces a framework for the Co-ordinated Online Register of Electors (CORE) to enable national access and ensure registers are securely and accurately maintained.
• Allow access to observers at polling stations and at other stages of the electoral process, such as the count.
• Introduces clearer rules for candidates and political parties and sets a regulatory time period for measuring and controlling candidates' expenses, in line with current party spending controls.
• Reduces bureaucracy for smaller parties and independent candidates, promoting multi-party participation in elections.
• Reduces candidacy age to 18.
• Allow children into polling stations with parents.
• Establishes more flexible and accountable funding arrangements and introduces performance standards for elections in order to tackle current inequalities in the provision of electoral services.
• Give new powers to the Electoral Commission, enabling it to fulfil its statutory duties to monitor and advise on electoral law and processes.

TERRITORIAL EXTENT

UK-wide.  National Parliamentary elections, European elections and by-elections to Westminster are a reserved area.  Franchise is also a reserved issue.  However, the conduct of local elections in Scotland is a devolved matter. 

COMMENTS

If you have any comments on the proposals you can email them to:

joanna.burden@dca.gsi.gov.uk; or nancy.hey@dca.gsi.gov.uk