Electoral Commission says returning officers must improve performance at general election

The Electoral Commission has praised returning officers (ROs) for their performance during the 2009 European Parliament elections, but has warned that improvements – particularly in relation to ensuring the integrity of elections and raising public awareness – need to be made ahead of the general election later this year.

In a report based on ROs’ self-assessment against the Commission’s performance standards framework, the Commission found:

• Nearly all ROs (just over 96%) either met or exceeded the first standard relating to skills and knowledge of the returning officer
• The majority (just over 90%) of ROs met or exceeded all three of the standards relating to planning and organisation
• The majority (over three quarters) of ROs met or exceeded the standard on maintaining the integrity of an election. However, one in five ROs said that they did not meet this standard, the highest proportion of all the seven standards
• Just over three quarters of ROs met or exceeded all three standards relating to participation.

The Commission found that the main reason for performing ‘below the standard’ was the lack of formalised planning procedure, which was most apparent in relation to standards 4 and 7 (integrity and public awareness respectively). Such written plans would be designed to tackle instances of electoral malpractice and boost public awareness activities.

“There is still a lack of written documented plans for election processes, although to a far lesser extent than was found for electoral registration officers (EROs),” the report added.

The Commission said that following discussions with ROs, EROs and electoral services managers over the last year, returning officers needed to adopt a more ‘hands on’ approach to election planning than EROs apply to registration planning, due primarily to the high profile and public nature of the role.

It concluded: “We have been encouraged both by the overall level of performance against the standards, and by the willingness of ROs and their teams to use the performance standards framework as a basis for continued improvement. However there are still areas which require immediate improvement and we will issue specific guidance to ROs on what they need to do in order to meet the standards, starting with the UK Parliamentary general election and beyond, focusing specifically on work relating to integrity, participation and planning.”

The Commission has already published templates for returning officers to use to enable them to meet the minimum requirements of the standards.