Clause 7 - Encouraging Voting
Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill
11:30 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I shall give the Under-Secretary an example and ask him a question. He spoke about the requirement for the Electoral Commission to act reasonably and rationally—we all understand that. However, if one gives the Electoral Commission the right to do anything that it thinks necessary or expedient for the purpose of encouraging voting, whether it is behaving reasonably or rationally will essentially be tested by whether what it is doing is expedient for the purpose of encouraging voting.
Let me give a specific example of a very low-cost way to achieve a higher turnout at referendums. The Under-Secretary might not like it, but it would achieve the purpose. Suppose the Electoral Commission said that a £5,000 prize would be offered in each polling district. One electoral number would be drawn out of a hat containing the electoral numbers of everyone who voted, and one person would get £5,000, £10,000 or whatever. The Under-Secretary might think that that is a terrible, shocking thing, but it would increase the turnout without influencing the outcome.