Electoral Register - Further Information
The Electoral Register
The electoral register lists the
name and address of everyone who has registered to vote. By
law, your local authority has to make the electoral register
available for anyone to look at. The register is held at the
local Electoral Registration office at the Council Offices,
Codsall and at local libraries and post offices.
Libraries and post offices will only have the edited version (see
explanation below) for the local area that that library or
post office covers. To view the whole register you have to
visit the Council Offices at Codsall.
Up to 2002, any company,
organisation or person could buy a copy of the register. But
the Government changed the law so that from 1st December 2002, you
have some choice about who can buy details of your name and
address. The Electoral Registration Officer has to
keep two versions of the register: the full published
version and the edited version. When you fill in
your electoral registration form, you will be able to choose
whether you want your details included in the edited
register.
The Two Versions of the Register
The full register has the
names and addresses of everyone registered to vote and are
updated every month. Anyone can look at it, but copies can
only be supplied for certain purposes, such as elections and law
enforcement. Credit reference agencies are also allowed to
use the full register, but only to check your name and address if
you are applying for credit, and to help stop 'money
laundering'. Anyone who has a copy of the register will be
committing a criminal offence if they unlawfully pass on
information from it. You do not have a choice about your name
and address being on this register.
The edited register will
be available for general sale and can be used for any
purpose. You can choose not to be on it. It will be
kept separate from the full register and will be updated every
month. The edited register can be bought by any person,
company or organisation and could be used for different purposes
such as checking your identity and commercial activities such as
marketing.
The Choice You Have to Make
If you do tick the
box on the voter registration form, your name and address
will only appear on the full register, which will only be used for
certain lawful purposes, such as elections, law enforcement and
checking applications for credit.
If you do not tick the
box on the voter registration form, your name will also
appear on the edited version of the register, which anyone can
buy. This means anyone can use your details for any
purpose.
The person who fills in and signs
the registration form must ask each person named on the form if
they want their details to be included on the edited register and
so available for anyone to buy.
So, you must tick the box if you
do not want your details to appear on the edited register which
anyone can buy. Do not tick the box if you want your name and
address to be included on the edited register and available to
anyone who asks for a copy of it.
Rolling Registration
The electoral register is updated
monthly for additions, deletions and any amendments from December
once the new revised register is published until the following
August. The rolling registration period expires mid-August each
year and from this date to end of November householders
should complete their household canvass form to be added from
1st December i.e. the date we publish the revised
register.
If anyone has moved address since
the qualifying address either within the District or from somewhere
else in the country they can register at their new address by
simply completing and returning a voter registration form, see
external link below. There is also a specific form to use
if you are just changing your name, see external link below. The
monthly deadlines are shown on the forms with electors being added
from the beginning of the following month. All electors are
then written to notifying them of their details being added to the
register.
The Council does not
generally delete an elector (except during its annual canvass)
unless it receives a notification from another Council of the
person(s) re-registering elsewhere in the country, or by death, as
these are generally notified via the local Registrar of Births,
Deaths and Marriages.
See under links on the main page
for the
Council's policy on
searching the edited register.
District Profile
The Distrct has a population of
106,500 (in accordance to the ONS 2008). Of our population,
85,600 are registered as electors. 14% of these are over 70
and 1% are rising 18 year olds i.e will become 18 of voting
age during 2010. 98% of our population are white.
Full a fuller breakdown on the
District and how we target our services to different
groups, see the Public Awareness and Access
Strategy under links below.
Service Personnel
Since 2001, servicemen and women
have the option of either registering as "Service Voters",
or as ordinary civilian voters. As from 2007 though
registration now lasts for 3 years and is no longer an annual
declaration.
For the latest information - a
leaflet and an application form may be downloaded from the
following links:
External
Links:
Overseas Electors
British Citizens living overseas
may preserve their right to vote in UK Parliamentary and European
Parliamentary Elections for a 15 year period from their last
registered address in the UK.
Crown Servants/British Council
Employees and their Spouses living Overseas
If you are working outside the UK
as a Crown Servant or as an employee of the British Council, you
can still register to vote. You can also register if you are
married to a Crown Servant or British Council employee and you are
accompanying them during their employment abroad.
An Application Form is available
from the following link:-
Persons with No Fixed Address
You can still register to vote
even if you do not have a fixed address. This may be because you
are:
(a) you are currently resident as a
patient in a mental hospital, you are not a
detained offender or on remand, and
would not be entitled to be
registered by virtue of residence at
any other place; or
(b) you are currently resident at a
place where you are remanded in custody,
otherwise than after being convicted
of any offence, and would not be
entitled to be registered by virtue of
residence at any other place; or
(c) you are a homeless person not
resident at any address in the United
Kingdom.
To register, you need to fill in
a form called a 'Declaration of Local Connection' by clicking on
this form.
PDF Document: Declaration of
Local Connection (73KB)
On this form you need to give an address where you would be
living if it were not for your current situation or an address
where you have lived in the past. If you are homeless, you
can give details of where you spend a substantial part of your
time. The term homeless will include anyone who does not have a
fixed abode in the District which may be because you travel around
in a camper van or canal boat.
Anonymous Registration
Please see latest news
below.
From 1st June 2007 electors and
members of their household can complete an annual declaration to
register anonymously if they are fearful of their safety due to
personal circumstances or their occupation.
How can I get Electoral forms in - large print / Audio / or
different languages?
Either contact the Elections Office on 01902
696121 or e-mail
elections@sstaffs.gov.uk
or visit the electoral commission site for further details (see
below).
We value your comments and welcome
your compliments!
Comments
Please give your comments to the
Elections Office on this website and your views on the electoral
information we provide. Your views are important to us in
order for us to continually improve.
The following are samples of actual
comments logged on the website of our Telephone and Internet
Registration provider received during August 2007. 19
positive comments and two minor criticisms/comments:
"Straightforward and ideal for the
modern busy person".
"Excellent, fast and simple".
"Very easy and user friendly
system".
"I was quite impressed by the
process; however its functionality is very limited".
"The link needs to be properly
identified on your home page".
In answer to the two comments, we
currently can only allow confirmations and minor changes due to
legislation and we have added the link to this website and
identified this on the homepage during the annual canvass.
Other positive comments during the
year included 2 on the suitability of polling stations and these
were included with in the Polling Review.
Compliments
Compliments were received in the
form of a letter from a new Presiding Officer used in
the election who complimented the Team on the efficient
and professional organisation of the election. In addition to
the complimentary positive comments above.
Complaints
2006 Performance
During 2006, the Service received just one formal complaint,
which has been investigated, and no maladministration was
found.
During the same period 4 informal complaints were
received which can be categorised as follows:
|
POOR SERVICE
|
STAFF CONDUCT
|
FACILITIES
|
COUNCIL POLICY
|
OTHER
|
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
The complaint under the category “Other” related to Government
policy which the Council is required to apply. All complaints
were resolved to the satisfaction of the customer. Comments
raised have been used to continually improve the service we
provide, for example, the staff conduct issue related to the use of
temporary canvass staff and will lead to improving the customer
service training given to such staff. Any complaints logged
against poor service will lead to looking at new ways of providing
a better service. For example, following a complaint received
during the County Council elections on 5th May 2005, we
have changed the way we now issue postal votes, particularly to
addresses overseas.
2007 Performance
During 2007, just one formal complaint was made which was
investigated and dismissed at the hearing of the Complaints
Panel.
A total of 6 informal complaints were recorded and can be
categorised as follows:
|
POOR SERVICE
|
STAFF CONDUCT
|
FACILITIES
|
COUNCIL POLICY
|
OTHER
|
|
5
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Poor service complaints related to inaccuracies within the
electoral register and we welcome any inaccuracies to be pointed
out. The register has 84,000 electors and we added 946
electors, deleted 1,212 and amended 111 during the period prior to
the canvass in the autumn where a further 12,500 amendments took
place. The "staff conduct" complaint related to the canvass and how
a canvass form was delivered. There were mitigated circumstances in
this case and a training need has been identified.
2008 Performance
During 2008, no formal complaints were made and just one
informal complaint made. No elections took place so there was less
interaction with customers. No complaints were recorded
during the canvass period when each householder is contacted. The
complaint is categorised as follows:
|
POOR SERVICE
|
STAFF CONDUCT
|
FACILITIES
|
COUNCIL POLICY
|
OTHER
|
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
An elector objected to how we had recorded his address. We
corrected it to how he wanted it shown.
The register has over 85,000 electors and we added 1,066
electors, deleted 1,151 and amended 111 during the period
prior to the canvass in the autumn where a further 9,400 amendments
took place.
2009 Performance
During 2009, no formal complaints were made and nine informal
complaints made. Two elections took place - this being for the
County Council and for the European Parliamentary held as a
combined poll on 4th June. The complaints are categorised
as follows:
|
POOR SERVICE
|
STAFF CONDUCT
|
FACILITIES
|
COUNCIL POLICY
|
OTHER
|
|
6
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
In order to comply with the Government's Data Standard's
requirments all properties where cross referenced with the Local
Land and Property Gazeteer that is the corporate database for
correct addresses within the District. Amendments as
necessary where made including postcodes where we added postcodes
to properties with none recorded with the register and corrected
those that did not match. Two of these complaints were about
postcodes and where made and subsequently corrected during the
canvass.
Over 8,300 amendments where processed during the canvass period
from August to December.
Costs 2007
The total cost of running elections and the electoral
registration service in 2006/7 (including all on-costs) was
£209,527.12. The published full electorate figure for the District
in this year, as at 1st December 2006, was 84,701 which give a cost
per elector for the service of £2.47.
This compares favourably with benchmarking undertaken with
similar local authorities.
The Electoral Commission is developing a national performance
standards framework and will be collecting from all local
authorities from the 2007/8 annual canvass financial
information and performance indicators data. The idea
behind the national framework is measuring performance to
drive improvements.
Helpline Performance 2007
During 2006/7 the Elections Helpline number (01902 696121)
received a total of 4,249 calls and 87.4% of these were answered
within the Council's corporate standard of 90% of all calls being
answered within 4 rings or 11 seconds.
For the first 6 months of 2007/8, there were 2,735 calls and
91% of these were answered within the Council's corporate
standard.
During the second 6 months of 2007/8, the helpline received
1,726 calls and 95% of these where answered in accordance with the
Council's policy. The first half of the year was busier notably due
to the elections.
E-mail and Letter Answering Performance 2007
Electoral Services only received 15 formal letters that
required a response; this excludes all application forms and
election specific requests. All these were answered in
full within the Council's policy of 14 days.
The specific election e-mail address received 104 e-mails
during 2007. 99 of these required a response. 67% of these
were answered within the Council's policy of within 24 hours. The
majority of late responses were in the Easter period around the
busy election period. The Service aims to improve this
performance during 2008.
Costs 2008
The total cost of running elections and the electoral
registration service in 2007/8 (including all on-costs)
was £277,936. The published full electorate figure for the
District in this year, as at 1st December 2008, was 85,249 which
gives a cost per elector for the service of £3.26 (up 0.79p per
elector - main District elections and the associated costs of these
were held during this financial year).
Helpline Performance 2008
During 2007/8 the Elections Helpline number (01902 696121)
received a total of 3,094 calls and 95% of these
were answered within the Council's corporate standard of 90% of all
calls being answered within 4 rings or 11 seconds. The overflow
number of 6120 received 3,397 calls of which 99% of these were
answered.
E-mail and Letter Answering Performance 2008
Electoral Services only received 12 formal letters that
required a response; this excludes all application forms and
election specific requests. All these were answered in
full within the Council's policy of 14 days.
The specific election e-mail address
received 60 e-mails during 2008. Of these
e-mails, 12 (20%) were not answered within the Council's
policy of within 24 hours.
Electronic Registration Performance 2008
The performance this year from electronic registrations resulted
in 18,248 registrations this way. This comprised 12,733 by free
phone, 4,006 by the web and 1,509 by SMS text message, which was a
new option introduced in 2008 and appeared popular and will
continue to be offered in the future. Overall performance in 2007
was 15,915. 2008 exceeded this number by 2,333 and was our best
year ever after 6 years of offering an electronic choice.
Nationally there appears to be a big increase in registrations by
electronic means. We are one of 252 who use the ERS for
this service and all 8 Districts use this company in
Staffordshire.
The percentage average number of households that could use this
method was 42.6% in Staffordshire and the West Midlands compared to
53.4% nationally. Overall 4.1m households used this service
in England in 2008. The most popular day of the week to
register was Monday (20%); most popular time to register was
between 10.00am and 11.00am (9%) and the most popular age
group who used this was aged between 56 and 65.
2009
Costs 2009/10
These will appear her during summer 2010.
Helpline Performance
From April 2009, the helpline number (6121) was re-routed to the
Contact Centre. Statistics on call traffic will appear here
in due course.
E-mail and Letter Answering Performance
Electoral Services only received 15 formal letters that
required a response; this excludes all application forms and
election specific requests. All but one was answered in
full within 5 days. The letter not asnwered within the
Couuncil's policy was answered in full within 7 days.
The specific election e-mail address
received 73 e-mails during 2009. Of these
e-mails, over 90% were answered within the Council's
policy of within 24 hours.
Customer Survey 2006
As part of the annual
canvass and our commitment to providing excellent customer
service 1,000 questionnaires were randomly delivered to
households across the District.
The results showed that the
majority of those who replied thought that the Council was
providing an excellent service. This has also provided us
with a steer on the type of developments you would also like to see
us develop, such as maps on poll cards.
For a full set of the results
click on the link below.
Customer Survey 2007
For the second year running during
the annual canvass 1,000 random questionnaires were delivered to
households across the District.
A continued high satisfaction rate
was achieved in all areas with some positive comments on the
ease and choice of registering.
For a full set of the results
click on the link below.
Customer Survey 2008
The third year in a row we have
achieved an excellent rating for our canvass and overall work of
the Service. Some comments received are shown below:
"I have found it ideal since I have
been able to register on-line"
"Really easy to register by
phone"
"Form looks like an advert - easily
discarded as junk mail".
Response - The
form is clearly marked as being from the Council with important
legal information. We deliberately make the form bright and
eye-catching so householders do not discard it.
"Would be nice to put the form in
an envelope as it contains important information".
Response - The form is secure if sealed correctly
with the gummed strip. Adding the form in an envelope is
something that we have considered but on balance have decided
against due to this adding considerably to the processing and
printing costs. We appoint canvassers to hand deliver forms and
those forms we have problems with delivering to properties are
returned to the office to be posted in an envelope.
"Postal registrations are a little
confusing".
Response - This is
something that we work hard on to clearly explain the legal nature
and will review this for next year.
Other points raised:
65% of people who responded said
they would like to be able to make changes on-line.
Response - this is
something that we will explore further within what we can do
legally for next year.
97% considered that Electoral
Services is fully supporting the Council's aim of being a well
managed Council.
Response - this
was a new question to gauge what householders think of our
contribution to this corporate aim.
For a full set of the results
click on the link below.
Customer Survey 2009
Once again the results of the
random survey show a high satisfaction rating with Electoral
Services. A respectable 23% responded.
For a full set of the results
click on the link below.
Stakeholder Survey 2005/06
Following the County Council
and Parliamentary Elections in 2005 and subsequent by-elections for
local Parishes and the District Council, all candidates and their
Election Agents were issued with a questionnaire to obtain feedback
on all aspects of the service provided from nomination to the
count.
Very positive feedback was received
from the interested parties on the current service provided and
comments on how to provide an even better service.
For a full set of the results click
on the results below.
Stakeholder Survey 2007
Feedback on the survey conducted
during 2007, following the full District and Parish Elections and
annual canvass can be viewed in links below.
These showed very positive results
and an excellent rating for all areas.
In response to the comments made
about the length of the count this was as expected. The
Returning Officer has to be satisfied himself that everything has
been accounted for and we are reliant on count staff being
available. We do accept that we could have done with a few
more count staff for the Friday's parish count.
Stakeholder Survey 2009
Following the combined poll
for the Staffordshire County Council and European Parliamentary
Elections in June 2009,all local candidates and their Election
Agents were issued with a questionnaire to obtain feedback on all
aspects of the service provided from nomination to the
count. This can be viewed by clicking on the results
below.
These once again showed all areas
of the service as performing to an excellent standard.
The Acting/Deputy Returning Officer
response to specific comments raised have been added which will
lead to improve the running of future elections.
National Performance Standards for
EROs
All EROs from 2008 have been
benchmarked by the Electoral Commission using a self-assessment
tool against 10 national performance standards.
For further details visit the link
below to the Electoral Commission's website.
South Staffordshire's
EROs performance is shown below:
| |
ERO PERFORMANCE |
|
| |
|
|
| |
Assessed on 10 questions over 4 areas: |
2008 |
| |
|
|
| |
Completeness & accuracy of the
register |
|
| 1 |
Using information sources to verify and identify electors for
the register |
Above |
| 2 |
Maintaining the property database |
Standard |
| 3 |
House to house enquiries |
Standard |
| |
Integrity |
|
| 4 |
Maintaining the integrity of registration & absent vote
applications |
Below |
| 5 |
Supply & security of the register and Absent Voter
lists |
Above |
| |
Participation |
|
| 6 |
Public Awareness Strategy |
Below |
| 7 |
Working with Partners |
Standard |
| 8 |
Accessibility & communication of information |
Above |
| |
Planning & Organisation |
|
| 9 |
Planning for rolling registration & the annual canvass |
Standard |
| 10 |
Training |
Standard |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
2008 Result Summary |
2009 |
| 2 |
BELOW |
TBC |
| 5 |
STANDARD |
TBC |
| 2 |
ABOVE |
TBC |
This performance has been
bench-marked against the Council's 15 audit family group of similar
District Councils. Of the 15 Councils, our performance of
just having 2 areas below standard compares favourably, as 8
others are worse with more below and one other is the same.
The category that has the most below rating is for an ERO having a
Public Awareness Strategy (Q6). South Staffordshire has written one
during 2009 and we shall appear at standard for 2009.
We have 2 categories above
standard and this again compares favourably as 8 other Councils do
not have this many above standard and 5 report the same. The
most common category to have above standard is using information to
verify and identify electors for the register (Q1).
2009 performance will appear here
by January 2010, and it is anticipated that there will be no areas
below standard.
Latest Electoral
News
Registering Citizens of New
European Member States
As from 1st January 2007, citizens
of Bulgaria and Romania can now register to vote and be included on
the electoral register to vote in local government elections.
New Postal Vote Provisions
Also from 1st January 2007, the
main provisions of the Electoral Administration Act come in to
effect, see Changes in Electoral Law,
and one of the major provisions of the Act is for all current
permanent postal voters to be written to for them to provide the
Council with their Personal Identifiers i.e. latest signature and
date of birth in order to help combat postal vote fraud. At
election time the Council will have to check that the Personal
Identifiers given by the elector with their postal vote matches
what has previously been given, if they don't the ballot paper can
be rejected.
Anonymous Registration
As from June 2007, the Electoral Administration Act 2006 allows
for the introduction of anonymous registration by way of a
declaration accompanying a voter registration form. This will
allow people to vote in person, by post or via proxy without fear
of their identity or address or that of anyone in their household
being made public. For a copy of the application form please click
on the link below. More information is available by viewing
the Frequently Asked Questions
page.
Please note that as from 2009, a police officer of or above the
rank of superintendent in any police force in the UK can now attest
these applications.
PDF Document: Anonymous Registration (134KB)
Review of Polling Districts and
Polling Places within the South Staffordshire
The Acting Returning Officer for South
Staffordshire consulted on the existing arrangements and
representations were invited from other relevant sources. These
include elected members, local political parties and the general
public, as well as organisations that have expertise in relation to
access to premises for people with different forms of
disability.
Electors were invited to take part in the consultation
process by sending in their comments in the form of a letter to the
address or e-mail address below.
The consultation period ran from 1st August to
the 10th September and the draft scheme
was approved at the Council’s Regulatory Committee on
6th November 2007.
The Notice of Review and a copy of the scheme is available
below.
Emergency Proxy Provision
Electors falling ill or otherwise suffering from a sudden
medical emergency after the normal proxy vote deadline of 6
working days before polling day can apply for an emergency proxy
vote. Please note that this form (see under links below) does
need to be attested by someone who can testify for your
medical condition. The deadline is 5pm on polling day when
the form needs to be with the Electoral Registration Officer.
Customer Service Excellence Standard
Electoral Services applied to convert its Charter Mark to the
Government's new Customer Service Standard in December 2009.
Electoral Services have held the Charter Mark standard since
December 2009 and was subject to conversion to the new
standard. A joint application was made with Concessionary
travel services to achieve the Government's Customer Service
Excellence standard. The Council was subject to
a self-assessment and then recieved an on-site assessment by
an external Asssessor and sucessfully achieved this national
standard in December for a 3-year period.
Polling Place Changes 2010
The Electoral Registration Offcier is curretly consulting
stakeholders on changes to the polling place at Blymhill (ADA) and
Gospel End (AMA).
It is proposed to use from 2010 the Old School at Blymhill and
The Firs Residential Home at Gospel End.
Any comments on the proposed changes should be made in
writing to the Electoral Registration Officer of the Council
by 1st February 2010.
To view the list of all polling stations click on Polling
stations under Links below.
Links
Polling
Stations
External Link
Electoral
Commission performance standards
Contact
Phil Hardy
Electoral & Concessionary Services Manager
Phone: (01902) 696119, or
General queries to the Helpline (01902) 696121
or write to:
Phil Hardy
Electoral & Concessionary Services
Manager
South Staffordshire Council
Council Offices
Codsall
WV8 1PX