EU Referendum Results on a Ward by Ward Basis

The request was successful.

Dear Electoral Commission,

Can you please advise what directions you issued to the City of Birmingham and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenherad. Birmingham are able to provide the results on a Ward by Ward basis but the RBWM have told me :-

"The Electoral Commission directed that we follow a mini-count procedure where we mix the ballot boxes across wards after the verification and before counting, which is why we do not have the number of Leave and Remain votes for each ward"

Were different directions issued to these two authorities ?

Yours faithfully,

John Walsby

FOI, Electoral Commission

Dear John Walsby,
 
Our Ref: FOI 129/16
 
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act dated
12^th July 2016, received by the Commission on 13^th July 2016,
concerning:

Can you please advise what directions you issued to the City of Birmingham
and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Birmingham are able to
provide the results on a Ward by Ward basis but the RBWM have told me :-
"The Electoral Commission directed that we follow a mini-count procedure
where we mix the ballot boxes across wards after the verification and
before counting, which is why we do not have the number of Leave and
Remain votes for each ward"
Were different directions issued to these two authorities ?
 
 
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 10^th August
2016.
 
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
 
Paul O’Malley
Information Adviser (Records Management)
The Electoral Commission
3 Bunhill Row
London EC1Y 8YZ
Tel: 020 7271 0554
Fax: 020 7271 0665
[1]www.electoralcommission.org.uk
[2]www.aboutmyvote.co.uk
 
Putting voters first
 
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FOI, Electoral Commission

Dear John Walsby,

Our Ref: FOI 129/16

 

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 dated
12 July 2016.

 

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 in bold below followed by our response.

 

You have requested:

 

Can you please advise what directions you issued to the City of Birmingham
and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Birmingham are able to
provide the results on a Ward by Ward basis but the RBWM have told me :-

"The Electoral Commission directed that we follow a mini-count procedure
where we mix the ballot boxes across wards after the verification and
before counting, which is why we do not have the number of Leave and
Remain votes for each ward"

Were different directions issued to these two authorities ?

 

 

Our response is as follows:

 

The Chair of the Electoral Commission was the Chief Counting Officer (CCO)
with responsibility for the overall conduct of the referendum and ensuring
the accuracy of the overall result. There were 382 Counting Officers (COs)
for the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, one for
each local government area in Great Britain, plus one each for Northern
Ireland and Gibraltar. In Great Britain, the Counting Officer for each
local authority area was, by law, the person who was the local government
Returning Officer for that area, in Northern Ireland it was the Chief
Electoral Officer and in Gibraltar it was the Clerk of the Gibraltar
Parliament. COs were responsible for the voting process in their area,
including the verification and counting of votes.

 

The CCO had a power of direction over COs relating to the discharge of
their functions and preparations for the referendum. The same directions
were issued to all COs and a full list of directions can be found on our
website:

[1]http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__....

 

On the method of verifying and counting votes, the CCO directed the
following:

 

‘Ensure that your verification and counting arrangements are structured in
such a way as to break down the verification and count into a number of
self-contained ‘areas’ smaller than the voting area, with the totals for
each of these ‘areas’ aggregated into a single total for the voting area;
the counting of votes for any self-contained ‘area’ must not be commenced
until the verification for that ‘area’ has been completed.’

 

While the CCO directed that the count be broken down into smaller areas,
she did not direct what these areas should be. Individual COs therefore
had the discretion to decide on the size and number of the areas in their
counting area, taking into account their local knowledge and experience.
Different Counting Officers will therefore have broken their count
processes down in different ways, with some using wards and others not.

The CCO’s directions were issued following a consultation process. On 28
August 2015, the CCO commenced a [2]consultation on the proposed approach
to managing the EU referendum, which set out her proposed directions. On
12 November 2015, a [3]response paper was published summarising the
comments received during the consultation period and the CCO’s response to
these.

 

To support COs with managing the verification and count, the CCO issued
[4]guidance to COs on the verification and count. Chapter 2 of this
guidance covers breaking down the verification and count processes into
self-contained areas.

 

In [5]Bulletin 158, the CCO strongly recommended that ‘COs should make
available the local count totals for each these self-contained ‘areas’ to
referendum agents and counting agents at the count, and should be prepared
to provide this information more generally on request’. The Bulletin also
makes clear that the information they will be able to provide will be
dependent in practice on how the voting area has been broken down and how
count processes are being set-up and managed.

 

 

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

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:
[6]http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/ab...

 

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: [7]http://www.ico.gov.uk

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Vanessa Asante

Information Officer

The Electoral Commission

3 Bunhill Row

London EC1Y 8YZ

Tel: 020 7271 0569

[8]www.electoralcommission.org.uk

 

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References

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