Consultation Response: Electoral Pilots at the C.E.P. and Local Elections

The Government recently announced it was preparing for a further stage of electoral reform pilots, to be held in 2004 at the scheduled European and local authority elections. The intention is to combine these two elections, and conduct all postal voting pilots in three European regions and a further e-voting pilot in one of those chosen regions. The pilots are a significant change from those conducted over the last three years, since they will not be restricted to local authority elections. Under the terms of the Representation of the People Act [1], pilots may only be conducted at local authority level. Since the government is keen to test the reforms on a larger scale, primary legislation has been introduced into the House of Commons in order to allow pilots at European Elections [2]. In 1999 turnout fell to just 24% at the European elections, so the pilots are considered a test of whether reforming voting mechanisms are capable of improving turnout[3]. During debates in Parliament, it became apparent that the pilots have raised a number of concerns, particularly amongst the opposition parties, who have noted the security considerations of conducting remote elections (electronic or otherwise) and the worth of addressing voting mechanisms as a means of improving. This document has been prepared by the Digital Privacy, Security and Trust Group at the University of St. Andrews* in response to the consultation paper published by the Office of The Deputy Prime-Minister (ODPM) [4]. We respond to specific questions raised by the consultation, laying particular emphasis upon the e-voting component of the pilot, where our particular experience is strongest.