United Kingdom: Scottish Government gets electronic voting system for local elections | Computer Weekly

The Scottish Government has contracted CGI to develop a vote counting system that will be used in the local elections in 2017. The elections use the single transferable vote system (STV), which is a form of proportional representation where votes choose multiple candidates in order of preference. As a result, manual counting would take up to four days. CGI provided an electronic vote counting system at the same elections in 2012. The current contract, worth around £6.5m, covers all 32 Scottish local authorities. There are about 1,200 councillors in 353 wards.

United Kingdom: British expats denied right to vote in EU referendum | Expat Forum

An amendment that would have given long term British expats the ability to vote in the UK’s referendum on the country’s future in the European Union has been defeated. Currently expats who have lived abroad for more than 15 years cannot vote in British elections, but there has been a major campaign for them to vote in the referendum based on the argument that it affects expats as well as those living in the country. A number of members of the House of Lords, the upper house in the British parliament, presented an amendment to allow them to vote but it has been defeated by 214 to 116 votes and there is currently no other move to change the voting system. The upcoming Votes for Life bill will overturn the law that bans those who have lived abroad for longer than 15 years from voting, but it will not be passed before the referendum, which must take part by 2017.

United Kingdom: Supporters of giving the vote to the 16-plus population score victory in the Lords | Wales Online

The Lords has backed giving 16 and 17 year-olds the vote in the upcoming in-out EU referendum. The move was championed by Welsh Labour peer Eluned Morgan, the former MEP who was once the youngest member of the European Parliament. The latest defeat inflicted on the Government saw the Lords vote by 293 to 211 to approve the change. If the Government allows the move to stand it would see some 1.5 million 16 and 17 year-olds eligible to take part in the referendum due to take place by the end of 2017.

United Kingdom: New push to give voters aged 16-plus a say on whether the UK stays in the EU | Wales Online

The former Welsh MEP who was once the youngest member of the European Parliament will this week lead a bid to ensure 16 year-olds can vote in the upcoming EU referendum. Labour peer Baroness Morgan argues this is a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to give people a say on their country’s future which could also help kick-start a lifelong habit of voting. Ms Morgan, who hopes to stand for Labour in the upcoming Assembly elections, argued people aged 16-plus were capable of making major decisions. She said: “They are already taking significant decisions that affect their own lives at 16… They are deciding which A-Levels to take, which vocational courses to take, and so if they’re responsible enough to do that then you think [they should] be responsible to take a decision for the broader society.

United Kingdom: Lords allow Cameron to bring forward reforms to voting system | The Guardian

David Cameron’s reforms to the voting system have narrowly survived an attempt to kill them off in the House of Lords, despite warnings from the Electoral Commission that people could be disenfranchised. Peers rejected a fatal motion that would have stopped the Conservatives bringing forward use of a new electoral register to December 2016, even though it contains up to 1.9 million fewer names than the old register. The new register requires everyone to be registered as an individual, which differs from the old system under which the head of a household was able to register all occupants. The narrow win will be a relief for Cameron after the House of Lords voted down the government’s cuts to tax credits on Monday.

United Kingdom: ‘Outrageous’ Tory changes to electoral roll will face challenge in Lords | The Guardian

The government’s attempt to rush through changes to the electoral registration system, which could result in up to 1.9 million people disappearing from the roll, is to be challenged in the House of Lords. In a rerun of the battles in the last parliament to redraw the constituency boundaries, the Liberal Democrats are opposing the changes, calling them “an outrageous gerrymander”. The voters likely to fall off the register are mainly in inner-city areas and less likely to vote Conservative. The Electoral Commission had advised the government in June to spend another year transferring voters on the old household-based register to the new individual register, but ministers want to short-circuit the process so that it is completed by December 2015, and not the end of 2016. The commission says there are 1.9 million names on the household register that are not on the individual register.

United Kingdom: Peers speak out for expat referendum vote | The Connexion

Peers spoke out strongly in favour of a referendum vote for all Britons living in EU countries when the UK’s EU Referendum Bill had its first House of Lords debate. Many members gave their backing to the idea in yesterday’s debate – which the Liberal Democrats have confirmed to Connexion will also be the subject of an amendment which will be lodged before the bill is discussed in detail in a Lords ‘committee stage’. (The date for this has yet to be set, but it will be the next part of the bill’s journey through parliament). Chairman of Brussels and Europe Liberal Democrats Giles Goodall said it has been agreed that the cross-bench peers [those of no specific party] will table an amendment on this, with Liberal Democrat support. He said the same is planned for an amendment calling for an independent report into the impact of leaving the EU. The Liberal-Democrats will also table amendments on votes for 16-17-year-olds and for EU citizens living in the UK, Mr Goodall said. Readers wishing email peers with support or comments can find contact details here: House of Lords.

United Kingdom: David Cameron: I will ignore Europe’s top court on prisoner voting | Telegraph

David Cameron has vowed to ignore a European Court of Justice ruling expected this week that could outlaw Britain’s blanket ban on prisoner voting. In an explosive move on the eve of Mr Cameron’s conference speech, Europe’s highest court is on Tuesday predicted to rule that automatically stripping convicts of the vote is a violation of their human rights. It would be a defeat for the British government, whose lawyers argued it would be a major extension of the EU’s powers because voting arrangements a matter for national governments to decide.

United Kingdom: EU referendum: expats push for voting rights | Telegraph

David Cameron has been told by Conservatives Abroad to hurry up with a bill to restore British expats’ full voting rights. The Government promised in the Queen’s Speech in May to abolish the so-called “15-year rule”. This currently prevents around a million of the five million Britons overseas from voting in UK and European elections if they have lived out of the country for that period of time. However, the Votes for Life Bill to restore their rights has not been tabled for debate in Parliament yet. With the EU referendum looming in 2017 – and potentially as early as next year – expats in Europe are concerned they might not be able to participate. In May, a Downing Street spokesman indicated that the 15-year rule would remain in place for the referendum, causing concern among expats who want to have their say.

United Kingdom: Research drives call for lower voting age | The National

The UK Government now has no excuse to not give 16 and 17-year-olds the vote in all elections, after research into the independence referendum found young people going to the ballot box for the first time were motivated by the “same factors” as older voters. An international team analysing teen voter patterns observed the behaviour in young people going to the ballot box for the first time in 2014. The findings are based on a study of almost 600 youngsters from Dundee and Angus. In June, the Scottish Government passed a landmark Bill to allow this age group to vote in Scottish Parliament elections. Yesterday, the Electoral Reform Society said the research results are yet more evidence that the Westminster government must follow Holyrood’s lead and lower the voting age across the board.

United Kingdom: Labour closes ballot helpline before leadership election deadline | The Guardian

Andy Burnham’s campaign has criticised Labour’s “unbelievable” decision to close its telephone helpline for people yet to receive ballot papers on the final day of its leadership contest. With less than 24 hours to go before the voting deadline, dozens of Labour members and supporters have publicly complained that they have still not received emails or papers allowing them to take part. Some of the leadership campaigns believe hundreds if not thousands of members and supporters could be disenfranchised. After receiving many complaints over the last week, Labour reissued thousands of ballots by email on Tuesday to people who had not yet voted. It is understood that Iain McNicol, the party’s general secretary, then emailed all the leadership campaigns on Tuesday, saying the reminder email would “hopefully pick up any outstanding issues your teams have been contacted about non-receipt of ballot papers”.

United Kingdom: EU referendum: David Cameron suffers defeat in parliament over ‘purdah’ rules | The Guardian

David Cameron has suffered a humiliating defeat over the EU referendum as Tory rebels and Labour put aside their differences to oppose changes to the rules that restrict government campaigning before an election. The government lost by 27 votes as a group of Tory backbenchers argued that Downing Street was trying to unduly influence the result in favour of staying in the EU. The rebels, led by Eurosceptics including Bernard Jenkin, Bill Cash and Steve Baker, said it was wrong of the government to seek changes to purdah, which is the month-long period before a poll when government announcements and spending are restricted.

United Kingdom: Thousands of Labour leadership ballots to be reissued | Telegraph

Thousands of Labour leadership ballots will be reissued on Tuesday as concerns over missing voting slips triggers calls for the results to be delayed. The party has been forced into the emergency move less than three days before voting ends after a wave of complaints from supporters who have not received their ballot. Shabana Mahmood, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury and co-chair of Yvette Cooper’s campaign, is understood to have only received her ballot on Friday. Aides on Labour leadership campaigns said members of their staff and grandees backing candidates are also still waiting to get their ballots despite just days remaining to vote.

United Kingdom: Labour members complain about missing leadership ballot papers | The Guardian

Labour members and supporters have begun protesting to the party about their lack of ballot papers with less than a week to go before the leadership election closes. The party initially promised that 99.9% of its electorate would have received ballot papers by 28 August, but it is now refusing to disclose how many of the 554,000 have been sent out. A initial batch of 340,000 was dispatched on 14 August, and a second batch of 170,000 voters should have received their ballots between 21-26 August. That would have left a final batch to receive their voting instructions by email by Friday 28 August. However, with just four and a half working days until the ballot closes at midday next Thursday, many have taken to social media to complain to the party about worries that they could be disenfranchised in the contest.

United Kingdom: Labour leadership election chaos as 120k ballot papers were sent out only last week | Daily Mail

The first voting papers went out in mid-August, but party sources revealed yesterday that ‘well over’ 120,000 were sent out on Friday. With that amounting to more than one in five of all of those eligible to vote, a source in one contender’s camp said there was still ‘all to play for’. Another said the race was still ‘up for grabs’. The surge in new members and supporters has caused a huge headache for Labour HQ as officials attempt to weed out infiltrators. Members of other political parties have been barred from voting as part of a huge ‘purge’ of unwanted applicants. At the beginning of last week Labour insisted all ballots would be verified in time, and said checks on voters would be ‘finished in the next few days’.

United Kingdom: EU referendum: Cameron accepts advice to change wording of question | The Guardian

David Cameron has accepted a recommendation by the Electoral Commission to change the wording of the EU referendum question to avoid favouring the pro-EU side. Downing Street has announced that the government will table an amendment to the EU referendum bill to reflect the new wording. The move by No 10 means that voters will be asked whether Britain should remain a member of the EU or whether the UK should leave the EU. The government had intended to ask voters simply whether the UK should remain a member of the EU, prompting the Electoral Commission to warn that this could favour the status quo in the referendum. The prime minister’s spokeswoman said: “We will follow the recommendation of the Electoral Commission by tabling an amendment to the bill. The government’s approach has been to follow the Electoral Commission’s advice.” The move means that, unlike the Scottish referendum, there will not be a yes and a no campaign. Instead, there will be a campaign to remain in the EU and a campaign to leave.

United Kingdom: Jeremy Corbyn: Let prisoners have the right to vote | Telegraph

Jeremy Corbyn will consider campaigning to give prisoners the right to vote if he becomes Labour leader. The Labour leadership candidate said he would follow demands by the European Court of Human Rights to allow convicted criminals the right to vote in British elections. The court has ruled four times that Britain should lift its ban on prisoner votes but Parliament has refused to give way over the issue. The 66-year-old left-wing politician supports the principle of overturning the historic ban on jailed convicts voting because he thinks it will help rehabilitate them. MPs voted in 2011 to keep the ban on prisoner voting, despite the tough stance adopted by the European judges since 2005.

United Kingdom: Labour leadership: Harman vows to weed out all ‘cheats’ | BBC

Harriet Harman has said 3,000 alleged “cheats” have so far been excluded from voting in the Labour leadership contest, with more expected. The acting Labour leader said: “It is not funny or clever for people from other parties to try to cheat their way into our system.” And only people who supported the “aims and values” of the Labour Party would be allowed to take part. She was speaking after a meeting with the four leadership contenders. She said the verification process was “robust” and would go on until the “very last minute”.

United Kingdom: Jeremy Corbyn’s rivals to demand Labour reversal on stronger checks against infiltration | Telegraph

Jeremy Corbyn’s rivals will today demand that Labour reverses a decision not to weed out “infiltrators” with extra checks amid fears they could skew the result of the leadership contest. In a showdown meeting in Stevenage, Harriet Harman, the acting Labour leader, will be told to use election canvass returns to double-check the allegiance of new joiners. Failure to do so could trigger a slew of legal challenges from donors who funded campaigns in good faith or councillors who have been infuriated Tory infiltration, they will warn.

United Kingdom: Labour seeks legal advice over leadership election infiltration fears | The Guardian

Labour is seeking legal advice to ensure its leadership election is being conducted according to party rules, amid fears that the contest is being infiltrated by people who oppose the party. A spokesperson for acting leader Harriet Harman confirmed that the party had called in lawyers to ensure that the process would not be open to challenge, but denied that there were any plans to halt or suspend the process. Under new rules anyone can vote if they pay £3 to register as a supporter, which prompted concerns that the system was being gamed by people who support other parties. About 400,000 people have become eligible to vote in the contest since the general election, swelling the electorate to 600,000 A spokeswoman for Harman denied that legal advice had been sought as a result of the worries over “entryism” from the left and right. “The party’s focus is on making sure that the rules are fully complied with, as we said last week we have taken legal advice to make sure that the rules are being complied with and that all due diligence as possible was being done,” she said.

United Kingdom: Andy Burnham calls for urgent meeting over concerns that ‘large scale’ Tory infiltration could lead to legal challenge | The Independent

Andy Burnham has called for an emergency meeting over concerns of “large scale” infiltration of Conservative supporters in the Labour leadership race. His team has written to Labour HQ demanding a meeting be held early next week between all four campaigns, claiming that the evidence of ‘entryism’ from supporters of other parties in the leadership election…

United Kingdom: Tory party member says he voted for Jeremy Corbyn … three times | The Guardian

The founder of a Twitter campaign to elect Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in order to damage the party’s future chances of gaining power claims to have received three ballot papers to vote in the election, despite being a member of the Conservative party. But a Labour party source said it had only sent one ballot paper to his address and that the Electoral Reform Service, which is managing the voting, would not allow one individual to vote three times. Andrew Wylie, who uses the pen name Charlie Mortimer, said he registered as a supporter of the Labour party using his first name, his middle name and his wife’s name, using the same email address and mobile phone number on all three applications. Wylie claims to have received three separate ballot papers and to have sent them all off, voting for Corbyn in first place, with no second preference. “I’m hoping Jeremy will just walk it in the first round,” he said.

United Kingdom: Labour leadership: voter registration extended after website crash | The Guardian

Labour has extended the deadline for people to sign up to vote for its new leader after its website crashed and dozens of supporters of Jeremy Corbyn began to raise concerns about being excluded. The party issued an apology on Twitter after its online registration form for supporters suffered technical difficulties on Wednesday morning, with just hours to go before the midday cut-off point. The deadline was then extended until 3pm as people continued to experience problems signing up. The glitch happened as the party struggled to cope with almost 250,000 new members and supporters, each of whom is being checked to make sure they are not “entryists” from other parties trying to influence the result. Around 88,000 have still not been vetted.

United Kingdom: Labour leadership contest: campaign teams summoned over ballot concerns | The Guardian

Labour has hauled in its four leadership campaign teams for a meeting at party headquarters in an attempt to put a stop to complaints from some of the camps about the credibility of the contest. The party called in representatives of Jeremy Corbyn, Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall on Tuesday, as it sought to clear up confusion about the process and reassure them that no “entryists” from other parties would successfully infiltrate the competition. At the meeting, called by Iain McNicol, the party secretary, and attended by chief whip Rosie Winterton, the campaign teams were told that at least 1,200 members or supporters of other parties have now been excluded and at least another 800 are under investigation. But despite the party’s attempts to stress the robustness of its verification process, the Guardian has been told by sources present that the meeting raised more questions than it answered, and at least three of the camps are in touch with each other to discuss their concerns about the running of the contest.

United Kingdom: Scottish Voting Law Will Allow 16 And 17-Year-Olds To Cast Ballots | Huffington Post UK

Sixteen and 17-year-olds in Scotland will soon be able to vote, after a landmark law was passed by MSPs in Holyrood. The key new piece of legislation, formally titled ‘The Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Act 2015’, received Royal Assent on Friday. It will give some teenagers, who have been denied the vote for centuries, the right to cast a ballot in Scottish Parliamentary elections, due to take place in 2016, as well as local government and council elections.

United Kingdom: Labour accuses David Cameron of manipulating electoral system | The Guardian

Labour has accused David Cameron of attempting to rig the electoral system, after the government ruled it would adopt a new electoral register this year even though up to 1.9 million voters on the old list are still missing from it. The government said it would adopt the individual register from December this year, overruling the advice of the Electoral Commission, which said it should not be implemented until December 2016. There are currently 1.9 million more voters on the old household register – under which one person was responsible for registering everyone in the home – than the new individual register. The discrepancy has raised concerns that many of these people will lose the right to vote unless they re-register before elections in May 2016.

United Kingdom: Missing expat ballot papers were sent abroad with UK stamps | Telegraph

A lack of funding led to UK stamps being put on postal ballot papers for overseas voters ahead of the general election in May, the Electoral Commission disclosed in a report. A flood of complaints came in from Britons living around the world that they were unable to vote, despite being registered to do so. Some did not receive their postal ballot papers before the May 7 poll, which swept the Conservatives to victory. Others received their papers too late to be able to send them back to their last-registered constituency in time for them to be counted. More than 400 people complained to the Electoral Commission.

United Kingdom: Labour and Lib Dem peers step up fight for lower voting age | The Guardian

The government has suffered yet another defeat in the House of Lords over an amendment that would give 16- and 17-year-olds the vote in council elections. Labour and Liberal Democrat peers teamed up for the second time this week to change the cities and local government devolution bill. They are also planning to stage similar changes to the EU referendum bill to give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in that poll when it comes to the Lords later this year.

United Kingdom: For those seeking to boost voter turnout, Scotland is a false friend | The Conversation

A huge and well known problem for democracy across the developed world is that voter turnout has been falling in elections for a number of years. It is particularly noticeable in towns and cities, which reflects the fact the problem is worst with the less well-off sections of the electorate. The UK is no exception – but last September’s Scottish referendum made the world sit up and take notice. The referendum strongly bucked the downward trend, producing an 84.6% turnout, well above the 66% of voters who voted in the previous two UK elections. It was heralded as a great example of democratic engagement, with strong impetus at grassroots level that saw activists on almost every street corner and lively debates in church halls and community centres the length of the country. According to former Scottish Nationalist deputy leader Jim Sillars, it was “a unique civic exercise in self-political education on a massive scale”.

United Kingdom: 16 and 17 year olds granted the vote in all Scottish elections | Mirror

16 and 17 year olds have been granted the vote in all Scottish parliamentary and council elections, on the same day they have been denied it in the EU referendum. The Scottish Election (reduction of voting age) bill was voted for by 86 MSPs, with only 8 voting against the proposal. The SNP has long wanted to lower the voting age to 16, and in the Independence Referendum last September 16 year olds were able to cast their ballot for the first time.