British elections are stuck in the nineteenth century and are ‘unfit for purpose’, electoral administrators warn.
A new report from the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA) has called for a ‘root and branch review’ of the electoral process in the UK.
It reported the electoral community faced ‘unprecedented’ challenges in 2016 because of the combined impact of the May elections, the EU referendum and the transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER).
The report’s authors warned electoral administrators and suppliers were stretched beyond belief and ‘the system came closer to collapse than ever before.’
‘The AEA has long been of the view that what is required is a root and branch review of the whole arrangements for registration and the conduct of elections rather than more adjustment and change to a system so deeply rooted in the 19th century,’ said John Turner, chief executive of the AEA.
‘Many of the problems that currently exist and which surfaced again at this year’s elections are because of the historic nature of the systems in place and which are increasingly becoming unfit for purpose.’
The report called on Whitehall to make a number of recommendations to reform electoral processes.
One such recommendation was the Government should bring forward a single Electoral Administration Act which would set out the high-level framework governing electoral registration, elections and referendums in the UK.
This would help to simplify the rules across all electoral administration matters.
