Validation of EU Referendum Postal Votes for Gedling Borough Council

Thank you for your email received on 07/10/2016 requesting information
from the Council.

Your request is being considered and will be dealt with within the
statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, subject to the information not being exempt (or
containing reference to a third party). This means that you should receive
a response from the Council on or before 04/11/2016.

Please note that in some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is
the case, the Council will let you know. A fee notice will be issued to
you, and you will be required to pay before we will proceed to deal with
your request. Please note that the 20 working day time limit for responses
is suspended until receipt of the payment.

If appropriate, the information will be provided by letter/email, normal
font size (Arial, 12pt). If you require an alternative format, such as
Braille or large print, then please let the Council know.

If you have any queries about your request or wish to respond to this
email please email [Gedling Borough Council request email] quoting reference FOI/6613.

If you are not satisfied with how your request is being dealt with then
you should complain by writing to Mr. J Robinson, Chief Executive. This
letter should be marked for the attention of Cayte Goodall in the Chief
Executive’s Secretariat at the Civic Centre, Arnot Hill Park, Arnold,
Nottingham, NG5 6LU quoting the above reference number.

If you are still not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint then you
have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF Telephone 01625 545 700 or
www.ico.org.uk

Legal Services
Gedling Borough council

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The information in this Email is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this message by anyone else is unauthorised. Senders and recipients of any email should be aware that, under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the contents may have to be disclosed in response to a request made to the Authority.
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Dear Adam

Returning Officers are not a public authority under the Freedom
Information Act 2000 or Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and, as
such, are exempt from the disclosure requirements imposed by that
legislation. However, where possible, the Electoral Commission advises
that, in the spirit of the legislation, ROs should disclose the requested
information, provided that the information is already in the public
domain, or the information requested does not include personal data.

Therefore, in the interests of openness and transparency, our practice is
to provide any information requested under FOI if we hold it. In this
instance we do not hold much of the information you have asked for as we
have no requirement for it. However information that we do have is
provided below as appropriate.

Could you please provide the following information for the voting area
known as Gedling in respect of postal voting in the EU Referendum held on
23rd June 2016

Overseas voting entitlement

        a) The TOTAL number of registered overseas voters; 471 (although
this reflects the position as of today not for the referendum)

        b) The number of overseas voters who have permanent postal vote
set up; 178 (although this reflects the position as of today not for the
referendum)

        c) The number of overseas voters who registered a postal vote
specifically for the above referendum ; information not held

        d) The number of overseas voters who have a periodic postal vote
set up, that entitled them to vote in the above named referendum; 204
postal votes were sent to overseas destinations for the referendum.

        e) The number of overseas voters who had named a proxy to vote on
their behalf in the above named referendum; information not held

Number of votes issued and returned:

        a) The TOTAL number of postal votes issued; 16492

        b The TOTAL number of postal votes returned; 14658

        c) The TOTAL number of postal votes rejected; information not held

        d) The number of OVERSEAS postal votes issued; 204

        e) The number of OVERSEAS postal votes returned; 185

        f) The number of OVERSEAS postal votes rejected; information not
held

In respect of verification of postal votes, could you please confirm what
method (or methods) were used to verify the validity of the completed
postal vote:   

        a) Visual comparison of both original documents;

        b) Visual comparison where one or more of the comparison documents
was a scanned image;

        c) Use of automated recognition software and if this method was
employed, the name of the software used; Xpress software

        d) Other form of verification (please detail) where the xpress
software was not able to automatically verify the signature’s authenticity
staff did this manually.

I trust that this satisfies your request but if you have any queries
please do not hesitate to contact me on 0115 901 3906

If you are not satisfied with how your request has been dealt with then
you should complain by writing to Mr. J Robinson, Chief Executive.  This
letter should be marked for the attention of Caroline Rajchel in the Chief
Executive’s Office at the Civic Centre, Arnot Hill Park, Arnold,
Nottingham NG5 6LU.

If you are still not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint then you
have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF Telephone 01625 545 700 or
www.ico.org.uk.

Alec Dubberley

Service Manager, Elections and Members’ Services

Gedling Borough Council

Civic Centre, Arnot Hill Park

Arnold, Nottingham NG5 6LU

0115 901 3906

[1]www.gedling.gov.uk

For the latest news and events, follow us on Twitter [2]@GedlingBC or like
us on [3]Facebook

Please read the following carefully.
The information in this Email is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this message by anyone else is unauthorised. Senders and recipients of any email should be aware that, under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the contents may have to be disclosed in response to a request made to the Authority.
If you have received the Email in error please notify [email address]. Any views expressed by an individual within this Email, which do not constitute or record technical advice, do not necessarily reflect the views of the council. The Email has been checked for viruses. We do however recommend that you perform your own scan of any attachments (if any). We cannot accept any responsibility for transmitted viruses.

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References

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1. http://www.gedling.gov.uk/
2. https://twitter.com/GedlingBC
3. https://www.facebook.com/gedlingborough