Oral evidence: Voter engagement in the UK, HC 232Thursday 4 September 2014
Oral evidence, 4 September 2014.
Witnesses
Paul Lankester, Electoral Registration Officer for Stratford-upon-Avon, and Dr David Smith, Electoral Registration Officer for Sunderland, gave evidence.
Chair
Paul and Dave, please come and join us. I am particularly keen to squeeze in the questions. Do forgive us for what was a very interesting session that overran there. I am so sorry. Is there anything you would like to say to start us off or do you want to jump straight to questions?
Dr Smith
I am happy to take questions.
Paul Lankester
I think it is better for your time if you pose the questions you wish.
Fabian Hamilton
Good morning, gentlemen. We have just heard from the Electoral Commission about the approximately 7.5 million people that are not correctly registered to vote and I wondered what role you think electoral registration officers have in bringing that number down.
Dr Smith
I think we have a huge role to play. From my perspective, while there are general national initiatives that can be taken to effect and improve registration, there are some very local issues that make a big difference to the impact on the number of people registered. Obviously very different mobility patterns, different demographies, different housing conditions all influence, student numbers as well obviously influence the number of people that are registered, and the particular initiatives you take in that context make a big difference between the levels of registration. At a very local level it matters most to us to get as many people registered as possible. It matters for all sorts of reasons, but obviously principally from a principle of democracy and eligibility.
Paul Lankester
I agree with Dave. I think it is absolutely essential that we play a role in promoting. It is a service, elections are a service, and too often they have been run as administration exercises for administrators. What we have now though is something that I like to call a 21st century electoral registration system, but we still have an 18th century voting system, electoral system, and it is trying to match those up. One of the things about a better electoral registration system may well be that apparently voter turnout will go down, because if you get better at that and people still do not vote, then you will have an impact on percentage figures. But I think it is all about a continuing emphasis on trying to ensure people, when they move into an area, part of their pack in moving in is, “Here is about electoral registration”. I think there is a difficulty over the two registers, the one for sale, and that has probably caused the biggest exercise in complaints I have received in my time of 13 years as an electoral registration officer, 3,000 complaints in the last month from the current canvass, and that is fairly universal from my talking to other electoral registration officers. People do not want to be on that sold register.
Fabian Hamilton
Yes, that is very interesting, isn’t it? Of course, there could be a contradiction here. There could be an increase in the numbers of voting but a decline in the percentage of those registered to vote.
Paul Lankester
That is right, yes.
Fabian Hamilton
That would be a slight contradiction, but anyway, could you tell us what are the main challenges you face in producing an electoral register that includes everyone in your area who is eligible to vote? How would you characterise the response to those challenges across the country? Do you think that everyone involved, electoral registration officers, the Electoral Commission, the Government, in fact is doing enough to ensure that everyone who is eligible to vote is registered to vote? Obviously you have heard our discussion earlier and my colleagues talking about this as well.
Paul Lankester
I will start, because I think the issue for me is very different from Dave, who is in an urban area. I am in a rural area. I have properties that are half a mile to a mile apart, so you can imagine the logistics of visiting each property through gates and everything else. It is quite different than when you are in an urban area where you can quickly get around to deal with services, but we deal with other services in that same way. The IER is a big step forward with the ability now to register on the internet and by phone and that has helped significantly in terms of overcoming some of the obstacles I had. In some ways, we used to look at it as a value for money exercise. We do visit every property, that is part of the requirement, but before we would have said that to spend—in a time of austerity—£7,500 per 1% increase, as we were getting, because we went from 95% to 97%, about that sort of level, in terms of going from not to every property to every property. I think the issue is that people think that the process we have is restrictive to them. If we could have electronic registration right up to the day of the election, because some people do not even think about elections until the last possible minute—we are embedded in it, we are in a political environment, so we know when things are happening and how they are happening. Some people do not really realise until it hits them and sometimes the registration date has passed. That is when people get caught out, when they are going overseas on holidays, because they did not want to do a postal vote and this sort of thing. But for me, the other bit is around students; that is a real difficulty. The transient nature of students is such that when it was one person registering for all of them, they would be on two registers. We did surveys of people who do not vote, and it is something like, “Why haven’t you voted?” “I was a student and I voted where I was at at university” even though they are on our register as well. We have this sort of dimension that I think that when you move to the electronic registration and complete it there, you can start to take out some of the double issues and that will help. The last bit that I would say is that some of the forms still get assumed to be junk mail and we do not have an easy way of overcoming that when you move to the paper side; people do not realise what it is. I regret to say that some of my residents see something that is from the council, therefore they put it in the bin and then wonder why they do not know what is going on. That is the nature of some of our community.
Dr Smith
From my perspective, we currently have 97% of our eligible voters registered and I do not believe there is a single sort of action that we take that achieves that. I also think there are things we have not yet thought of that would further close that gap. I do think it is about a series of actions that have a cumulative effect over time to improve your registration. It is simply hard yards, a lot of it, which is why I have always supported the Electoral Commission’s view about canvassing. I think that door-knocking is as important as the write-outs, and in Sunderland we have taken an additional step of we also write out in February to try to encourage those who are not quite over the line and registered to do so, in the hope that if we do it close enough to the election it is on their minds. I think actions like that and others that we are learning from other authorities who have ideas that we do not have, if they are relevant and pertinent to our communities, to improve our registration, then that is what we should do. I think there is never a day you should feel you have this taped, because everything in your community continues to change and evolve, and therefore there are new challenges and new opportunities to influence people’s willingness to register and to make it easy and available to them.
Paul Lankester
I think probably one thing I would add is about now the importance of social media, particularly for the young, and that is something we have to get a lot better at and get into people’s psyche on that.
Fabian Hamilton
You have also seen, I take it, Mr Lankester, what Sheffield University are doing on registrations, which seems like a good way forward.
Paul Lankester
Yes.
Mr Chope
You say 97% of the eligible people are registered, and congratulations to both of you for a fantastic performance, but how do you know that is the figure of 97%? Is that 97% of all the adults in your area, or might it be higher because some people who are foreign nationals and not entitled to be on the register have declined to put themselves on the register?
Dr Smith
Yes. Of course we can never be entirely satisfied that it is an accurate representation because the numbers do change and we are at the mercy of that, as anyone else. I think we have a view about the number of eligible voters that we are aware of and we go on checking the accuracy of that, and obviously we have been doing that again through the IER process and we will go on trying to ensure that we are as accurate as possible. In a sense, from my point of view, the number is less important, the percentage is less important of those who are registered than an understanding of those who are not, so understanding that broadly what sort of number we are trying to deal with to get across the line who are not currently and where they may be, both in terms of geographical place and the type of people they are determines the best actions we can take to encourage those particular demographic groups to register. I think that is the key for me, so the key is to take a scalpel to this and understand who is not registered, understand why they are not and then focus your solutions on achieving those increases and go on measuring it to show that it is having an impact, obviously that we are using other resources effectively to improve the registration number, and if initiatives do not work, stop them and try something else.
Paul Lankester
I think we have looked at a couple of things, and we found that some people do not know that they can vote, because we try to target those where we feel there is a problem, and that is especially Commonwealth citizens, because obviously they can vote within the local elections and they do not realise, and trying to get that together is quite an important exercise. Tenants sometimes do not realise, and certainly if they are new to the private tenanted market or voting sector, they think the landlord is going to register for them. So I think with the move for more responsibility for the individual, we will get better and better. We base it on the demographics information we have and with the knowledge that we have in terms of those who might not be eligible to vote in terms of that and base that percentage on those figures, so the 97% is as accurate as we think it is. I suppose to some degree, there are two elements. Why are we getting people to register to vote? What is the purpose of it? Is the purpose to get people to vote or to register to vote? Certainly if I take another hat, my hat as a returning officer, I want to get people to vote, because that is their inalienable right, not enough people do that and that creates a demographic deficit. I have a mixed view about going for 100% in terms of that, because is 100% achievable in terms of value for money and why are we doing it? That is a slight question, but that is for others to make that decision and we will implement the legislation in terms of that.
Mr Chope
Some of my colleagues think that there should be sanctions against electoral registration officers for not meeting targets and so on. Rather than going down that road, do you think there is anything to be said for having sanctions against the individuals who do not register?
Paul Lankester
There are sanctions against those who do not register. I think we would have to use the Private Prosecutions Code in terms of what we did, and is it worth it in terms of the public interest of doing something for that? If I take it back though, you mentioned about the sanctions for the electoral registration officers that are not there. I think in local government, we are trying very much to improve performance within the sector by the sector and I think there is a role for us to try to get colleagues to act in a way that ensures we get it through changes in behaviour in those registration officers, to be quite honest, rather than a person just doing it for the sake of doing it, because people’s minds tend to go to how do they get around the systems to seem to be doing it and still not doing it. I would prefer to say give it to us as local government to sort out our colleagues who are not doing that. That is the right way forward and we will certainly try to help and promote good practice in ensuring it is there. But in terms of sanctions, sanctions need to be used very carefully and need to be used in a way that befits the situation, and it still goes back to my question why do we want people to register to vote?
Mr Chope
Are you aware of any EROs who use sanctions against individuals who do not register?
Dr Smith
I know of occasions when it has been done, but it has been extremely rarely. I think there is a great deal of reticence among EROs to pursue that, in the sense of Paul’s point: to what end? It might mean that they register, and you arguably could say that they are even less likely to use the opportunity of having registered to vote if you set those sort of negative cultures around the reasons to register and to use your democratic vote. I think we are very cautious of it. We certainly know from the experiences of staff who canvass—and I am sure MPs are more than aware of the sort of reactions you get on the doorstep—and we spend a lot of time with our canvassers training them about the messages to try to get across to persuade people about the positive benefits of being registered and obviously exercising their democratic right. It does not always work, as you will be well aware, but trying to set the right culture around this is important because it is not just the message that that individual receives, it is what they then communicate to their neighbours, their colleagues, their friends and families, and if we give them a very negative message, it obviously has a rolling impact, I think.
Paul Lankester
I think we would use the carrot and stick approach in terms of that. You do try to persuade and then when you do say, “You are running the risk now, if you do not register, then you could be liable to prosecution” and that is normally enough; normally enough, but not always.
Mr Chope
Thanks so much, and once again, congratulations on what you have achieved.
Paul Lankester
Thank you.
Fabian Hamilton
I just wondered what changes would enable you to improve voter registration in the areas you are responsible for. In other words, is it just a question of funding—we have already referred to this at the cost of 1% at £7,500 just in your area—and would better funding lead to higher registration rates, do you think?
Paul Lankester
Funding will always help, but it is not the panacea for all ills. I think in terms of that, I have a community that we do not normally get under 40% voting at any election, the police and crime commissioner election being the exception on that one, and we all know about that. In terms of most people do want to vote, they want to exercise that and we will get 70%-odd at a general election minimum, even more if there is some sort of local issue that is abounding at the time, but I have to say that I think it is more about giving more choice to citizens to be able to register and to see the benefits of registering. To some degree it is, “Can we register once?” We have this Tell Us Once initiative, but we need to be very careful about how far we use that in terms of that. If people have registered to pay council tax, for instance, and people know they are there, residents sometimes assume they are automatically then registered to vote because that is all part of that. I would have said that if we started a change that when a conveyance is done, part of that conveyancing thing is perhaps a registration to vote, as a start that might be quite a good, slow-release burner that takes things up in time, but we have to make it as easy as possible for people. People claim they do not have time—I may have used that expression myself from time to time—and I think the more we make it easy and the more we give different choice for how you access this service then the better it will be in the long run. We have been trying an initiative with our contact centre and with our front of house staff that when someone comes in, we ask them have they registered to vote at the same time, and it is that sort of thing, “Do you want to do it now while you are here? We are at the screen, put this in, get that done” and that is quite helpful. I think perhaps not necessarily more money; it is working smarter might be a better way.
Fabian Hamilton
These are now ubiquitous. An electoral registration app, for example, is that something that is feasible, given the security requirements and making sure there is no fraudulent registration?
Dr Smith
I think the opportunities around technology are very feasible. I think we have to overcome challenges and ensure security and so on, but if we truly want to drive this further, and we should want to try to drive it further, but we should also have regard to the fact that there are laws of diminishing return on just doing the same things over and over again. I think doing things in new ways, there are some very fundamental questions for all of us when we are trying to do things, “What is in it for me? How easy is it for me to do it and what is the downside of me doing it?” If you can answer those—
Fabian Hamilton
So it is motivation?
Paul Lankester
Yes, absolutely.
Fabian Hamilton
It is motivation to register as well as technological ability to do so easily and quickly?
Dr Smith
Yes.
Paul Lankester
Yes.
Dr Smith
If you can combine those things together, then you improve your opportunity at best cost.
Fabian Hamilton
The Electoral Registration and Administration Act of 2013 made provision for electoral registration officers to issue a civil penalty to people who do not respond to requests for information. Do you expect to make use of this power and how common is it that people refuse to register?
Paul Lankester
There are a few individuals. We have some individuals; there is a certain sector of the community who believe that they have to accede to abide by the law. We have the same on council tax as well. We have some wonderful little cases there where they claim that they have to positively agree to the law before they will assess it, so we have some individuals like that and we could show you some lovely correspondence on those sorts of things. There is some that cannot do. We have to think about the “cannot do” as well, because with the forms themselves, we do have a problem with people. I think there is more dementia in society, also with still some people with the inability to read, the basic skills. They have to be helped to get through and we are quite willing to provide that help, but there are also people who will not do because they do not believe that conformity to the national laws is for them.
Fabian Hamilton
So it is the same as people who overtake you in a 40 mile an hour speed limit on dual carriageway because the law does not apply to them, it applies to us?
Paul Lankester
Absolutely, yes.
Fabian Hamilton
So you get quite a lot of that with the electoral registration?
Paul Lankester
I get a small percentage of that, rather than anything else, and I am going to be very interested to see what the impact is for next year, having had these letters. I have had, as I say, over 3,000 e-mails or letters about the notification that you are on the register, saying that they do not want to be on the open register and the saleable register, and some of them are very vitriolic in, “What are you doing, Mr Lankester, in trying to sell our information? We think it is wrong. This is for voting, isn’t it, not for selling to companies?” We have persuaded in the past that if you want credit, one of the key factors why you would go on the electoral register is because the credit companies do their checks and look at that.
Fabian Hamilton
Does that alter their perception? Do they say, “Oh, I see. Right, okay, that is fine”?
Paul Lankester
Yes, we have had a number that had no intention of voting—and we had that in some of our customer surveys—it is only to ensure that they can obtain the credit they need.
Fabian Hamilton
No, I am thinking of the hostility about you selling the register. Does that change when you say, “If you want credit or if you want to do almost anything, you have to be on the register”?
Paul Lankester
I think it is two things. The credit agencies might buy it, but they do not sell it on. We have companies who buy it from us for less than 50 pence a record and sell it on for £10 a record. That is something that needs to be grappled with, and I suppose in terms of the people impacted, it is 3,000 out of an electoral roll of about 85,000, 86,000, but it is only of that 83% who matched, who had the records matching. It was quite significant.
Dr Smith
I also think that for the first time people are clear what an open register is and the fact that people are on it rather than electing to go on it or come off it. That is what people are objecting to, that they have not had control of the decision in the first place, and that has been at the front of this.
Fabian Hamilton
Have either of you ever issued civil penalties to people who refuse to register?
Chris Ruane
When did they start?
Chair
Chris, be fair, be fair. Come on.
Paul Lankester
I have not to date. We have managed to persuade the few people that we have down to responding, because it is trying to get through the gates of some of these properties; you cannot get through. It is that sort of side there, and second homes as well. That is the other bit that it comes up.
Fabian Hamilton
David, have you had that? Have you issued any penalties?
Dr Smith
No, I have not.
Fabian Hamilton
The Electoral Administration Act 2006 stated, and I quote, “A local electoral officer must take such steps as he thinks appropriate to encourage the participation by electors in the electoral process in the area for which he acts”. What do you think that means in practice?
Chair
We will have to be very brief on this, I am sorry.
Paul Lankester
I think that is a number of different things in terms of promotion, of getting into schools. We try to get into schools and get people engaged as part of what was the national curriculum in terms of the civic side, but then quite often we find that 18 year-olds lose it by the time they get there, so we are doing something different, we are trying something new on that. We will go out and actively promote the campaigns the Electoral Commission do, work with the Electoral Commission to try to ensure that people are able to see the importance of voting, but what we will also do is at every opportunity when we do get people coming to us and saying that they do not like things, particularly locally, “Have you voted? Make your vote count”. That is what we try to do, but it is a non-stop message.
Chair
Paul, David, I again apologise to you, we overran and compressed your time, and I know you have both travelled a fair distance to see us, so no disrespect intended whatsoever.
Paul Lankester
Chairman, if there is any other information you wish, just do come back to us.
Chair
That was my next point, Paul. I know members are itching to ask further questions and if we may, if we can write to you, we would like to pick those questions up in writing and we would appreciate your responses.
Paul Lankester
Yes, we can do a consolidated response.
Chair
Why not? Thank you so much and congratulations on your excellent work. It really is inspirational. Thank you so much. Voter engagement in the UK, HC 232 [1] The Electoral Commission subsequently confirmed that its target is for 1 million people to be added to electoral registers during the period of its main public awareness campaign, ahead of the General Election.