3 May2012London Assembly and London Mayoral elections– feedback form for Constituency and Borough Returning Officers and Electoral Registration Officers.

This form is for Constituency and Borough Returning Officers (CROs/BROs), and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs),to provide feedback on administering the London Assembly and London Mayoral electionstaking place in their area on 3 May.

We appreciate that this is a very busy period for you and would like to thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this form. Your feedback will be invaluable to us in preparing our report on these elections.

This form provides a series of questions as a guide to the issues on which we are seeking feedback. Please answer those questions which are relevant to you in your role - it should not be taken as an inflexible list.Please write your answers in the boxes provided (the boxes will expand).

Please return completed forms as soon as possible after polling day and no later than 1 June 2012(this is also the deadline for which monitoring return 7 is required). Completed forms should be returned to u can also return this form anonymously. See the back page for contact information.

About you

Are you completing this form as a (please mark as many boxes as appropriate):

Constituency Returning Officer
Borough Returning Officer
Electoral Registration Officer

If you would rather not provide the information below, please leave it blank.

Local authority:
Telephone number:
Email address:

Please note that we will not identify any authority or individual in any reporting based on the feedback received. Please be honest with your answers.

1.Planning for the 3 May

Please tell us how you planned for thepollsheld on the3 May. This may include:

  • How your planning differed from previous polls
  • Impact of any GLRO/London Elects planning initiatives, such as attendance at any briefing sessions or use of planning tools
  • How the timetable affected the administration of the polls
  • Staffing
  • Any challenges you faced (e.g. such as issues with legislation)
  • What would have made planningeasier

2.Roles and responsibilities

Please tell us your views on the roles and responsibilities and how this affected the delivery of the elections. Areas to consider may include:

  • The central coordination by the GLRO and London Elects team
  • The use of directions by the GLRO
  • Procurement of e-counting technology, ballot papers etc.
  • Collaborative working between the GLRO, CROs and BROs
  • Clarity of the role and responsibilities of CROs and BROs

3.Training and guidance

Please tell us your views on the provision of training sessions and guidance materials (this may include training/guidance solely provided by London Elects, guidance provided by the Electoral Commissionand joint guidance from London Elects and the Commission). Areas to consider could include whether there were additional topics that should have been covered, and any sessions or materials that were particularly useful.

4.Registration and voting

Please tell us about your views on the impact of any activities used to promote registration or provide voter information on the elections. This may include:

  • Electoral Commission campaign to promote registration
  • London Elects provision of voter information
  • Any activities you used to promote registration and absent voting before the elections
  • Challenges (such as any difficulties processing registration and absent voting forms received before the deadline for applications)
  • Any initial evaluation of the effectiveness of your work in this area

5.The nomination process (CROs only)

Please tell us about any activities you undertook to support Constituency candidates and any specific issues that arose during the nomination process. Please also tell us about any issues arising from Constituency Returning Officers managing the nomination process at local level for constituency candidates and the Greater London Returning Officer managing the process for Mayoral and London-wide Assembly candidates at London-wide level.

5. Absent voting

Please tell us about your experience of managing the printing and dispatch of postal ballot packs, and how effective these were. This may include issues relating to:

  • Ballot pack printing and production
  • Processes for proof-checking
  • The issuing of postal ballot packs
  • The performance of Royal Mail, or other postal service provider(s)
  • Any issues relating to proxy voting (such as managing emergency proxies)

We would welcome any comments on the verification of personal identifiers provided on postal voting statements. This may include:

  • The performance of software and any pre-testing undertaken
  • Whether 100% checking of identifiers was achieved, and whether you found achieving this easy or difficult
  • Suggested improvements to the process

6.Polling day

Please tell us about your experiences on polling day. This may include:

  • Challenges or issues that happened on the day
  • Staffing of polling stations
  • Issues that arose at polling stations on the day(e.g. not opening on time,queues, issues with tellers,etc.)

7. The verification and count

Please tell us about your experience of the verification and the count, including any issues that arose.

You may want to refer to issues relating to:

  • Venues andresources (including transportation and storage of ballots)
  • Timing of the count
  • Any recounts (and the reasons for these)
  • Candidates, agents and campaigners
  • Electronic counting

8.Advice to candidates, agents and political parties

Please tell us about any activities you undertook to support and advise candidates, agents or political parties on different aspects of the election process including nominations; absent voting; verification and the count; and electoral integrity.

9.Electoral integrity

Please tell us about what initiatives were in to place to prevent electoral malpractice and how effective these were. You may want to refer to any contact with your Police Single Point of Contact (SPOC).

10. Voters

Please tell us about any feedback you received from voters about registering to vote, or voting on 3 May (e.g. anything causing voter confusion). Please also tell us about any feedback you received from voters about their experience at the polling station or postal voting.

We are also interested in hearing how any of this feedback might influence your future planning or administration. Is there anything that could be improved upon for voters in the future?

11.Any other comments

Please tell us about anything else you would like to mention in relation to the administration of these elections.

For information on how to return your form please go to the final page.

Feedback on Fees and Charges guidance for the 2011 referendum on the voting system for UK Parliamentary elections

This section of the form is for Counting Officers (COs) and Regional Counting Officers (RCOs) appointed for the 2011 UK referendum on the Parliamentary voting system who were responsible for completing and submitting a claim.

For the first time, the fees and charges process for the UK wide referendum in May 2011 was overseen and administered by the Electoral Commission. For other UK wide elections the process is overseen either by the Cabinet Office or relevant devolved government. Our fees and charges guidance was based upon that issued by the Cabinet Office at the UK Parliamentary election in 2010 but was updated to reflect the special requirements of the referendum and our special responsibilities in relation to accounting for it.

Given this is the first time that the Electoral Commission has taken on this role, we would like your views on how the process went and ways that you think it can be improved. Your feedback will form part of our report on the future funding of a national referendum which is due to be published in October 2012.

Are you completing this form as a:

Counting Officer

Regional Counting Officer

1. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements (in relation to the fees and charges guidance for the 2011 UK wide referendum):

Strongly agree / Tend to agree / Neither agree nor disagree / Tend to disagree / Strongly disagree
The Commission’s fees and charges guidance clearly set out how the (fees and charges) process should be managed
The fees and charges guidance was easy to follow
Other resources provided by the Commission (bulletins and online information on our website such as documents to support expenses forms, cost assumptions, FAQs) were useful
I knew who to contact for advice and guidance
Overall, I found the advice and guidance I received useful

Please tell us more about your answers above:

2. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements:

Strongly agree / Tend to agree / Neither agree nor disagree / Tend to disagree / Strongly disagree
The overall maximum recoverable amount for my local area was set at the right level to effectively and efficiently deliver the referendum
The process for paying a 75% advance fee to Counting Officers for their services, and the remainder upon final settlement of the claim, was clear
I could claim for all the items I required to deliver an effective referendum
The guidance allowed for an appropriate split between services and expenses

Please tell us more about your answers above:

3. How easy or difficult was it to:

Very easy / Fairly easy / Neither easy nor difficult / Fairly difficult / Very difficult
Compile the information required to complete my claim
Complete my claim by the 5 January deadline

If you have answered fairly or very difficult, please tell us why:

4. How satisfied or dissatisfied were you with:

Very satisfied / Fairly satisfied / Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied / Fairly dissatisfied / Very dissatisfied
The correspondence you received about your claim (once submitted)
The overall time taken to process your claim

If you have answered fairly or very dissatisfied, please tell us why:

5. Overall, how satisfied or dissatisfied were you with:

Very satisfied / Fairly satisfied / Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied / Fairly dissatisfied / Very dissatisfied
How the Electoral Commission oversaw and administered the fees and charges process

Please tell us about anything else you would like to mention in relation to the fees & charges guidance issued for this referendum.

You may want to refer to issues such as:

  • Whether you found the guidance more or less helpful than in previous years
  • How you think the guidance could be improved for future elections or referendums
  • How you think the overall process could be improved for future years

Returning your form

If you would prefer to return this form anonymously please post it to:

Research and Evaluation team

The Electoral Commission

3 Bunhill Row

London EC1Y 8YZ

Otherwise, completed forms should be returned to Peter Dawson – Regional Liaison Officer,

If you have any queries in relation to the form you can contact Peter on 0207 271 0689.

Thank you for your assistance.

1