Changes to voting rules ‘increase workload and stress’

New voting rules “increase the risk of a well-run election”, Ealing LBC’s chief executive told LGC.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced yesterday that an early general election would be held on July 4.

The upcoming election will be the first since a 15-year restriction on the right to vote of British citizens regardless of how long they have lived outside the UK, meaning as many as 3.4 million additional citizens can now register to vote.

New parliamentary boundaries will be introduced, and other recent changes, such as the introduction of voter ID and changes to postal and proxy voting, mean that local authorities in the UK will have increasing responsibilities ahead of the election.

Speaking at UK REiiF in Leeds yesterday, Tony Clements, chief executive of Ealing, said: “These things do put more pressure on electoral service teams and other election support staff, which increases workload and stress.

“But we’ve just had the GLA (Greater London Authority) elections and we’ve managed proxy voting, we haven’t had too many issues with voter ID. So the signals from a few weeks ago are that the pressure can be managed, but they increase the overall risk of a good election.”

Clements said the council had received more applications from British nationals living abroad than it expected, including from someone who left Ealing in the 1950s, “before the borough existed”.

He added: “There were probably more (overseas applications) than we anticipated, and I think that will be more evident in the general election than the GLA election we just had. But as always with elections, we are ready to put the resources we need into it because we will deliver it thoroughly and well.”

Earlier at the conference, John Cotton (Lab), leader of Birmingham City Council, told the LGC there were “important questions” about some of the changes made to voter registration rules, but his authority would ensure that “everyone who is able to vote will be able to do so.” to do “.

He added: “We will do everything we can to comply with any changes to the electoral law that are implemented by our officers. I believe there are legitimate questions to be asked about some of the changes made to voter registration rules.

“There are very well-rehearsed rational arguments about the justifications for some of these, but we will certainly as local authorities make sure that everyone who is able to vote has the opportunity to do so.

“It’s really important that everyone participates and it’s a really important decision for the future of the country.”