Electoral services: beacon authority overviews

• London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
• Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council
• Swindon Borough Council
  

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has a long record of continuous improvement in providing electoral services to its residents. Innovations such as telephone and internet registration have been introduced to meet residents stated preferences. As part of an 'active citizenship' programme, the council actively encourages the participation of local residents in elections by inviting them each election to join the electoral team.

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s good practice is shown both in terms of the deployment of new technologies and innovative non-technology approaches to enhance their service. Some of the authority's innovations include:

• telephone helpline on poll cards
• maps on poll cards
• training for polling station staff
• plain English postal voting packs
• phone registration for "no change" households
• introduction of CINEMA data sharing software
• Language Line translation service in polling stations.

Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council

By fully using existing powers and by piloting technology under Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) sponsored pilots Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council has been able to achieve higher registration and turnout rates during a local election. The council has demonstrated that multi-channel e-voting combined with the publication of daily marked registers greatly increased turnout.

The council encourages engagement in its processes and has established high profile events to encourage participation for young people, groups and voluntary organisations.

Election staff have been fully trained in diversity issues - particularly for hidden disabilities such as illiteracy, to ensure that everyone has equal access. One of the driving forces behind the desire to dispense with traditional voting methods has been the lack of suitable venues for polling stations and the improved accessibility offered to all residents by multi-channel voting.

Swindon Borough Council

Swindon Borough Council has successfully delivered more electoral pilots than any other local authority in the United Kingdom and is continually looking for new and innovative challenges. Over a six year span the Electoral Services team has offered the electors of the borough a range of electronic and early voting methods alongside traditional voting by post and polling stations.

In May 2003, electors were able to vote by interactive digital TV and public information kiosks as well as internet and telephone voting. This multi-channel approach was linked to traditional postal and polling station voting to give the electors the widest possible choice of voting methods.

Working with the government department, the team is continually working towards an electronic micro-democracy system to enable electors to be consulted and respond online through the internet.