Clause 36 - Tendered votes in certain circumstances
Electoral Administration Bill
1:30 pm
David Cairns (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Scotland Office; Inverclyde, Labour)
The clause, which we will no doubt discuss in the stand part debate, extends the circumstances under which a tendered vote may be issued. There are two new circumstances in which that may happen, the first of which is when an elector attends a polling station to vote and discovers that they are included on the list of postal voters and so are not entitled to vote in person at the polling station, but denies having applied for a postal vote.
The other new circumstance is when a postal voter has lost or has not received their ballot papers and it is too late for them to apply for a replacement set. Under the proposed package of secondary legislation, the deadline for applying for a new set of papers in that situation will be extended to 5 pm on polling day. An elector who has lost their original papers and misses the deadline for obtaining a new set, may present themselves at their polling station in their constituency before the close of poll and apply for a tendered vote.
The purpose of the amendment is to insert a new paragraph into rule 40 to provide that where a person applies for a ballot paper and it seems to the presiding officer that he is entitled to a tendered ballot paper under that rule, the presiding officer shall inform him of the circumstances under which he can cast a tendered vote.
I appreciate that electors might find the question whether they are entitled to a tendered vote confusing, on the face of it, but we are empowering the presiding officers to ask voters certain statutory questions, some of which are designed to ascertain whether a person is entitled to a tendered vote. A person who satisfactorily answers certain questions put by the presiding officer may indeed, as the hon. Gentleman said, be entitled to a tendered vote.
Under paragraph 7 of schedule 1 to the Bill, we are extending the questions that the presiding officer may put to cover the new circumstances, under the clause, in which a tendered vote may be issued. The questions permitted vary depending on the circumstances of the person applying for a tendered vote and will now include ''Did you apply to vote by post?'' and ''Why have you not voted by post?'' Furthermore, there is nothing to prevent polling station staff from offering information to electors if that is thought appropriate. They will, if it is deemed necessary, be able to explain to voters the rules governing tendered votes.
That is a long way of saying that we entirely sympathise with the point that the hon. Gentleman is making, and are in fact extending the circumstances in which a person is entitled to a tendered vote. It would be odd, therefore, if we did not want to make the relevant people's entitlement known. However, there are statutory questions that should be asked of the individual to establish their entitlement. It is important that that procedure should be uniform. Thereafter, the question of Electoral Commission guidance will probably kick in.
We are with the hon. Gentleman in spirit, but do not see a need for the amendment, because we are trying to enhance the availability of tendered ballot papers to people in the circumstances that I have outlined. In the light of that I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw the amendment.