Objectives
- Observe the election process in the various English local and mayoral elections.
- Advise election officials, legislators, and the UK’s Electoral Commission on the results of the observation for the improvement of electoral practice.
- Support these election bodies with constructive feedback on areas of concern so that they may consider remedial action.
Overview
On May 2nd, Democracy Volunteers deployed 150 observers, and support team, from the 435 Democracy Volunteers observers accredited with the UK’s Electoral Commission. The organisation deployed across 85 of the councils holding elections in England and one in Wales.[1]
These observers generally formed teams of two (sometimes three), and attended 725 polling stations, across all the regions of England and in Wales. No elections were held in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
These observers spent between 30 and 45 minutes at each polling venue observing the voting process and then completed an online survey, regarding the integrity of the electoral process, for each polling station.
In general, teams attended between 10 and 15 polling stations in their day.
Democracy Volunteers deployed observers across 85 of councils, observing a total of 10,941 voters, compared to 9,392 voters in 2023, in the process of those observations.
Democracy Volunteers observers saw 2.1% of those attending polling stations turned away because they lacked the relevant ID, or were judged to not have it. Of those turned away 70% were identified by our observers as being non-white passing, of which 63% were women. Our team also did see others allowed to vote despite not having ID.
Despite the introduction of the 2023 Ballot Secrecy Act, ‘Family Voting’ again continues to be a challenge in polling stations, with our observers recording it in 24% of polling stations, affecting 4.7% of those voters we observed.
More details can be found in the report below.
[1] There are 1151 accredited observers with the UKs Electoral Commission
