The Electoral Modernisation Programme in the United Kingdom Paul Docker

1. The Electoral Modernisation Programme in the United Kingdom Paul Docker Head of Electoral Modernisation Department for Constitutional Affairs CoE Conference November 2006

2. Vision • Multi-channel elections which: • Meet needs of modern lifestyles • Improve access • Maintain / increase security • Improve administrative efficiency • “A 21st century democracy should provide a variety of ways of voting that reflect modern lifestyles” e-Envoy; In the Service of Democracy – 2002

3. The UK approach • Trials in binding elections • Maintaining a healthy scepticism • Relying heavily on independent evaluation and agreed standards (CoE) • Developing robust systems & accreditation including use of EML • Scaling up where opportunities allow and systems require

4. UK Government’s strategy • A first programme of pilots in binding elections - 2002 to 2005 • leading to extensive e-enabled: • local government elections - 2007 to 2010 • Greater London Assembly elections - 2008 • Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assembly elections? • European Parliamentary elections? • and leading to an e-enabled general election

5. The benefits of piloting • Testing in a real world environment • Learning lessons • Building for the future: • voter experience • local authority appetite • technical experience • developing political will

6. Electoral Pilots - a brief history • Since enabling legislation in 2000 over 150 electoral pilot schemes involving some 100 local authorities • 2003 Electoral Pilots covered over 6.4 million electors in 59 electoral pilots • 17 (centrally funded) e-voting pilots delivering: Internet, kiosks, SMS, telephone and interactive digital TV

7. 2003 Electoral Pilots Summary • 1.4 million voters able to participate in e-voting pilots • 27% of voters offered e-voting used the new methods available • In comparable areas where piloting took place in 2002, voting using e channels increased by over 50% • 2003 e-voting pilot areas had an average turnout of 37.5% compared to the national average of 33%

8. The ‘hiatus’ in 2004 and 2005 • 2004 - concentration on all-postal pilots • Ministers keen to use gains in postal voting • Coincided with Birmingham fraud issues • 2005 - General election - no power to pilot • Need to address issues around postal voting became a priority

9. Pilot developmentsin May 2006 • Concentrated on security and administrative changes plus e-counting • pilots to improve the security of the election e.g. use of barcodes, signature checking (Contributed to Act in July 2006) ; • pilots which improved access for electors, e.g. early voting, mobile voting and alternative polling locations; • pilots which improved administrative efficiency e.g. electronic counting of traditional and/or postal ballots;

10. What we want to test • Central Procurement • Direction to suppliers – e.g. pre-registration • Testing what we want – e.g. different marks in e-counting, different languages, ensuring accuracy of ballot completion • Procurement based on CoE Standards • 2007 onwards we will pilot: • traditional and additional polling stations • Remote e-voting – Internet and Telephone voting • ‘de-centralisation’ of voting to improve accessibility

11. E-voting - specific issues for UK • Fraud - increase in Postal Vote security requirements • Maintaining public confidence in election systems • Media and perceptions - UK and abroad • Capacity of local authorities to deliver • Supply -v- Demand - getting what we want not necessarily what is already available • Political support

12. Conclusion • Looking to push forward on e-voting • We are focused on addressing the key issues in the current climate - security, perceptions first …. scalability later • We are looking to learn from recent experiences • Looking forward to working with you and others

13. Contacts: paul.docker@dca.gsi.gov.uk +44 (0)20 7210 8221 stuart.harrington@dca.gsi.gov.uk +44 (0)20 7210 8308