Do we use Vote Counting Machines

The request was partially successful.

Dear Electoral Commission,

Please could you provide this information.

• With the rise of Early Voting, do we use machines to process these Postal Votes?
• If we do what is the company name of these machines?
• what was the overall percentage of postal voting in last Local and General elections?

Yours faithfully,

Danny Roscoe

FOI, Electoral Commission

Dear Danny Roscoe

 

 

Our Ref: FOI 014-21

 

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act dated
17/02/21 received by the Commission today, concerning:

 

Please could you provide this information.

• With the rise of Early Voting, do we use machines to process these
Postal Votes?

• If we do what is the company name of these machines?

• What was the overall percentage of postal voting in last Local and
General elections?

The Commission aims to respond to requests for information promptly and
within the statutory timeframe of twenty working days.

 

You may expect to receive a reply sent from the Commission by 17/03/2021.

 

Please note that due to the current situation with the Covid-19 virus our
offices are not accessible and we will not be able to respond to Freedom
of Information requests or release documents in hardcopy. We have taken
this decision to protect our staff and requestors in line with guidance
from the Information Commissioner’s office, as stated on our website
(www.electoralcommission.org.uk/freedom-information).

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

The Information Team

[1][Electoral Commission request email]

The Electoral Commission

electoralcommission.org.uk

References

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1. mailto:[Electoral Commission request email]

FOI, Electoral Commission

Dear Danny Roscoe

 

Our Ref: FOI-014-21

 

Thank you for your email to the Electoral Commission dated 17 February
2021.

 

The Commission aims to respond to requests for information promptly and
has done so within the statutory timeframe of twenty working days.

 

Your request is shown below followed by our response.

 

Please could you provide this information.

• With the rise of Early Voting, do we use machines to process these
Postal Votes?

• If we do what is the company name of these machines?

• what was the overall percentage of postal voting in last Local and
General elections?

 

Our response is as follows:

 

We hold some of the information you have requested.

 

The management of the receipt and counting of postal votes is the
responsibility of Returning Officer (RO) for each local authority and the
Commission has issued guidance to ensure that this is undertaken in
accordance with the appropriate legislation. The Commission guidance is
available [1]here on our website.

 

ROs use their Electoral Management Systems (EMS) to manage this process,
including scanning the postal vote statements and verifying them against
information held in the system. There are a number of different EMS
suppliers and we do not hold a record of which EMS each RO uses.

 

The information that you have requested about the percentage of postal
voting is exempt from disclosure under section 21 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. Section 21 provides for an exemption where the
information requested is reasonably accessible to you by other means. You
can find the data you are looking for on our website; it can be accessed
by clicking on this [2]link.

 

The Commission strives to be an open, transparent authority and I trust
that this information satisfies your request.

If you are not satisfied with this response, please note that the
Commission operates a review procedure, details of which can be found on
the Commission website at:
[3]https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/f....

Please also note that if you have exhausted all internal Commission review
procedures and you are still not satisfied you have the right to appeal to
the Information Commissioner. Details of this procedure can be found on
the ICO website: [4]https://ico.org.uk/.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Information Officer

[5][Electoral Commission request email]

 

The Electoral Commission

[6]electoralcommission.org.uk

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/s...
2. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/w...
3. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/f...
4. https://ico.org.uk/
5. mailto:[Electoral Commission request email]
6. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/