Election and Electoral Registration Service Review

We Asked

We asked residents to give us their views on the effectiveness of the election and electoral registration services – especially those based upon personal experience, so that the independent reviewer, former Chief Executive and Returning Officer for Sunderland City Council, Dr Dave Smith,could use these to inform his findings and contribute to the recommendations that he made.

You Said

Overall we received 38 responses covering a wide range of topics related to voting and registering to vote in Barnet. This included feedback on personal experiences of registering to vote and of voting in polling stations, by post and by proxy. Respondents also gave us information about how easily they were able to access the necessary materials for registering and voting and the effectiveness of the communication channels used by Barnet’s Electoral Services.

We Did

All of the responses received in the consultation were provided to the independent reviewer. He used the responses, along with all of the other information that he collated and reviewed and the evidence gathered by conducting interviews with staff, councillors, Barnet MPs and Barnet and Camden’s GLA Assembly Member. He used all the feedback to produce his findings and recommendations in a report that went to the Council’s General Functions Committee on 9 November 2016. All of the recommendations from the independent review were accepted at the committee meeting. Council staff are now actively working on implementing these recommendations. You can read the report of the independent review and the council’s initial responses here.