The Association of Electoral Administrators have published a position paper that says:
After an unprecedented year, the fragility of the electoral system is more apparent than ever, the expectations of citizens are not being met and the resilience of the electoral community to deliver is being tested.It concludes:
The UK Government needs to conduct a full root and branch review of the UK electoral process. It needs to seriously consider our recommendations from this statement and our previous statements, along with those of other stakeholders.
Whilst we have said this in previous statements and reports we will say it again - urgent action is needed by the UK Government to ensure the continued delivery of safe and secure elections.
The recommendations (page 16 onwards) are modest and sensible. They reflect the problems caused by ad hoc changes to electoral law over the last thirty years. I suspect that "patching things up" will mean that past mistakes are repeated. I'm sure that future technical and social changes will create new problems.
ReplyDeleteI find the tone of the paper a bit off. "Unscheduled elections" seem awkward rather than the norm. The authors, for obvious reasons, are inexplicit that technical failures diminish the democratic process.