Voter ID trial - electronic documents

The request was successful.

Dear Cabinet Office,

In the Voter ID pilot at the local elections in May 2018, in the case of elections in each of Bromley and Gosport would an electronic original utility bill have been accepted as an ID document or could a returning office refuse to issue a ballot when shown an original electronic document solely on the grounds that the document is in electronic format?

Yours faithfully,

R King

FOI Team Mailbox, Cabinet Office

CABINET OFFICE REFERENCE:  FOI326271

Dear R KING

Thank you for your request for information. Your request was received
on 10/5/2018 and we are considering if it is appropriate to deal with
under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This email is just a short acknowledgement of your request.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact the FOI team.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours sincerely,

 Knowledge and Information Management Unit

Cabinet Office

E: [1][Cabinet Office request email]

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FOI Team Mailbox, Cabinet Office

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Please find attached the reply to your FOI request

 

 

 

Regards

 

 

FOI Team

Room 405

70 Whitehall,

London, SW1A 2AS

E-mail -[1][Cabinet Office request email] 

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Dear FOI Team Mailbox,

Thank you for your response to my information request.

I note that you state that in the cases of both Bromley Council and Gosport Council that electronic documents would not have been accepted. However, the references to the Orders that you provided state that an electronic copy of a document would not be accepted as a document. However, my enquiry was in relation to an original document in electronic format, not to an electronic copy. For example, a utility bill emailed by a utility company to a voter or provided on the utility company's phone app would be the document as originally provided to the voter and would therefore be the original document, not a copy. Furthermore, it may be the only format in which the document is provided to the voter. Please could you clarify your response to my original question in relation to original electronic documents rather than electronic copies.

Yours sincerely,

R King

FOI Team Mailbox, Cabinet Office

CABINET OFFICE REFERENCE:  IR326271

Dear R KING

Thank you for your request for an internal review. Your request was
received on 4/6/2018 and is being dealt with under the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This email is just a short acknowledgement of your request.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact the FOI team.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours sincerely,

Knowledge and Information Management Unit

Cabinet Office

E: [1][Cabinet Office request email]

 

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Elections Projects Mailbox, Cabinet Office

Dear R King,

Thank you for your email of 4 June about the voter ID pilot schemes held
in May this year.

You asked whether an original document in electronic format was an
acceptable form of  identification in the Gosport and Bromley pilots
schemes. The Orders governing the pilot schemes in Bromley and Gosport
provided that a reference to a document was a reference to the document
itself. This was intended to capture all original documents. If a utility
bill is only received by a person in an electronic format then we consider
this to be the document itself.

One of the key features of the pilot schemes is the ability to identify
elements of both the development and delivery of a new process and how
these can be improved going forward.  

If any issues have arisen regarding the production of original electronic
documents as forms of identification we will ensure that we take this into
account on any future work we do relating to the requirement to show ID
before voting at a polling station.

I hope this is information is helpful. Thank you for taking the time to
write.

Best regards,

Nick Sandars

--

                                 

Mark Hughes

Head of Elections Projects

Elections Division

E: [3][email address]  

M: 07970 872173 

Follow us on Twitter @cabinetofficeuk
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Elections Project Team
 
E: [4][email address]  M: 07801 405
935

Nick Sandars

Elections Project Team

E: [5][email address]  T: 020 7271
8984  M: 07886 299 896 

(Working pattern: Wednesday afternoon, Thursday,
Friday)

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