Agenda item

9.1

The Head of Elections, Equalities and Involvement, submitted a report providing an update on the transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER).  The report set out details of the progress on the implementation of IER following the introduction of major changes by the Government to the way in which people were registered to vote, and outlined actions and proposals to ensure that the Authority maximised registration across the City. 

9.2

John Tomlinson, Electoral Services Manager, introduced the report, and stated that the rationale behind the introduction of IER was to introduce safeguards against fraudulent registration and to give individuals control over their own registration.

9.3

Members of the Committee raised questions and the following responses were provided:-

·                There were plans for Electoral Services to work with schools and colleges in the City in order to look at ways of increasing registration.  There was also a joint campaign organised by the City’s two Universities and the City College aimed at increasing registration from students at such establishments.  It was also believed that the Government had provided funding to the National Union of Students to assist in this process.

·                The Service would use alternative sources of data in order to identify specific housing schemes or developments where there was a higher than average turnover of occupants.

·                It was not possible, at this stage, to indicate how much ‘drop off’ was accurate or due to people moving out, but this information could be provided at a later stage.

·                It was not possible to indicate whether students, whose parents resided in the City, were voting in the City or where they were studying.

·                The Service would continue to work with customer-facing services across the Council, particularly those which had contact with under-registered groups, to incorporate registration activity as part of their everyday contact with customers and new service users.  The Service would also be contacting other social housing providers.

·                The approximate 35,000 electors who were not on the IER register, and were not eligible to have a postal or proxy vote, would be removed from the register unless they completed an IER application to register.

·                The main purpose of the door-to-door canvas was predominantly an information-collecting exercise for the purpose of updating the electoral register.  Work was undertaken, independent of the canvassing exercise, to inform community groups of the benefits of voting. 

·                Targeted work had been undertaken with faith communities, in order to provide advice and assistance in connection with IER.

9.4

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       notes the contents of the report now submitted, together with the comments now made and the responses provided to the questions raised; and

(b)       requests the Electoral Services Manager to give consideration to the issues now raised, and suggestions made by Members, in terms of how the Council could maximise voter registration.