The 2016 Mayor and London Assembly Elections

After every election there is a process of reflection to learn valuable lessons to better improve the voter experience and to ensure the electoral process runs efficiently. The London Assembly Election Review Panel report plays a central role in that reflection and our recommendations help to shape the way the election will be run the next time.

The report into the May 2016 London elections makes a number of recommendations including:

• Guidance/explanation options should be tested with voters in order to improve clarity and reduce rejected votes.
• The Government should review the risks of holding polls on the same day. Government should look at the possibility of moving the Mayoral and London Assembly elections to 26 October 2020, or later.
• For the 2020 GLA election every polling station should be prepared to record any incident in a log book, including any person’s name and address if they are unable to vote for any reason.
• That the London Assembly consider whether to hold a scrutiny review into the consequences of Individual Electoral Registration and the impact of how it is working across London.
• The specification for an e-counting service must include how objectives related to transparency can be addressed. This should include random manual sampling.
• Given the technical complexities of an e-counting system, the GLRO should have available technical expertise that is independent of the supplier of the system, who can provide this assurance role on behalf of the GLRO.
• The GLRO should have a senior experienced electoral manager present at the count to provide support and advice.

Read the report here.