Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Election watchdog ‘troubled’ by claims students voted twice
An independent watchdog is to investigate “troubling claims” that some people voted twice in the general election.
It comes amid concerns that the result in Canterbury and Whitstable could have been affected by “double voting”, with some electors – particularly students – being registered in two areas.
The city council, which oversees elections in the district, admits it does not know if this happened in the Canterbury and Whitstable constituency and has no plans to investigate.
The Electoral Commission has now published a report flagging up the issue of double voting.
It states: “Although people may lawfully be registered to vote in more than one place in certain circumstances, it is troubling that some voters appear to have admitted voting more than once at the general election, which is an offence.”
It pointed out that Canterbury was among seats where “there were also notable increases [in the electorate] of more than 10% in constituencies with high concentrations of students.”
Rosie Duffield beat the longstanding MP Sir Julian Brazier by just 187 votes on June 8. Last week this paper reported claims by a Liberal Democrat activist that some students had boasted of voting twice.
The commission said: “Urgent action is needed to reduce both the scale and the administrative impact of duplicate registration applications ahead of future polls. The Commission wants to work with the UK’S governments to incorporate more automatic checks into the online application service to highlight if someone has already submitted an application.” The report suggests that “a significant proportion of applications [to join the electoral register] are likely to have been duplicates” - ranging from 30% to 70% in some areas.”
Sir John Holmes, chair of the Electoral Commission, said: “If we are to keep pace with modern habits and practice in a digital world, the electoral registration system must continue to evolve, and consider innovative solutions such as direct or automatic enrolment processes.
“These have the potential to deliver significant improvements to the accuracy and completeness of electoral registers as well as efficiencies for local authorities and the public purse.”