Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 42
42
Acknowledged
Current overseas voting system fails to guarantee eligible voters' ballots are successfully counted.
Conclusion
The current system for overseas voting cannot guarantee that eligible voters will be given the opportunity to have their vote counted. We take the Government at its word that it is unacceptable that an eligible voter is prevented from having their vote counted. (Conclusion, Paragraph 119)
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges its commitment to full participation and improving postal voting resilience for overseas electors. It notes the committee's concern about the current system's reliability and current voting options, but highlights challenges with alternative methods like embassy or telephone voting.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
This Government is committed to encouraging full participation by legitimate voters in our elections. Fixing the foundations of our elections delivery processes, including making changes to help build more resilience into the postal voting system, will benefit all administrators and voters, including those living overseas. Overseas electors continue to be able to vote by proxy, post or in person, and proxy voters are also able to acquire postal votes. Systems and processes for overseas electors were in scope of our recently concluded Review of Electoral Registration and Conduct and were considered by the Review’s Working and Steering Groups as part of this process. The Government notes the Committee’s recommendations on considering the mechanisms available to overseas electors to support them to vote. Regarding the possibility of whether UK citizens living abroad could vote in UK elections at local consular and embassy buildings, there are concerns that this approach would result in significant logistical and administrative burdens that could compromise the efficiency and expediency of elections. This includes how ballot papers for all 650 constituencies would be made available at embassies and how votes would then be counted in a timely manner. Importantly, allowing voting in embassies would remove direct control of the process from Returning Officers, and may limit the opportunity for effective oversight and scrutiny of electoral processes. Proposals relating to introducing telephone-based assisted voting for overseas electors were also raised by the Committee. This would be a significant change to voting at UK elections and would raise a number of technical and logistical issues, which would need to be worked through further to ascertain whether such a process would be viable. While th