The Electoral Administration Act 2006 is an
Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
, passed on 11 July 2006.
Among its main provisions, the Act:
* Provides a legislative framework for setting up a "Coordinated Online Record of Electors", known as "CORE", to co-ordinate electoral registration information across regions.
* Creates new criminal offences for supplying false electoral registration details or for failure to supply such details.
* Allows people to register anonymously on electoral registers if a 'safety test' is passed.
* Requires local authorities to review all polling stations, and to provide a report on the reviews to the
Electoral Commission
An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
.
* Provides for the making of signature and date of birth checks on postal vote applications.
* Revises the law on "undue influence".
* Allows observers to monitor elections (with the exception of Scottish local government elections, which are the responsibility of the
Scottish Parliament).
* Reduces the
age of candidacy
Age of candidacy is the minimum age at which a person can legally hold certain elected government offices. In many cases, it also determines the age at which a person may be eligible to stand for an election or be granted ballot access.
The firs ...
for public elections from 21 to 18.
* Allows for alterations to ballot paper designs, including the introduction of barcodes and pilot schemes for the introduction of photographs on ballot papers.
* Allows citizens of the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
and certain
Commonwealth residents the right to stand in elections.
* Changes rules on how elections are run in the event of the death of a candidate, following the events in
South Staffordshire
South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. The district lies to the north and west of the West Midlands county, bordering Shropshire to the west and Worcestershire to the south. It contains notable settlement ...
at the
2005 general election.
* Provides for the entitlement of children to accompany parents and carers into polling stations.
* Bars candidates from using in their name or description expressions such as "Don't vote for them" or "None of the above".
* Bars candidates from standing in more than one constituency at the same election.
* Allows
political parties up to 12 separate descriptions to be used on ballot papers, and allows joint candidature.
* Requires local authorities to promote and encourage electoral registration and voting.
* Amongst other provisions affecting members of the armed forces and other persons with a "service qualification", allows the Secretary of State to extend the period of validity (previously one year) of a "service declaration" by which qualified persons may have their names placed on the electoral register as "service voters"; the Act also imposes new duties upon the
Ministry of Defence.
*Removes the requirement for an observer to witness the signing of the security statement of a
postal vote
Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system.
In an el ...
.
* Requires political parties to declare large loans. This provision was introduced as an amendment, surviving much
parliamentary ping-pong
Parliamentary ping-pong is a phrase used to describe a phenomenon in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, in which a bill appears to rapidly bounce back and forth between the two chambers like a ping-pong ball bounces between the players in a ...
, following the "
Cash for Peerages
The Cash-for-Honours scandal (also known as Cash for Peerages, Loans for Lordships, Loans for Honours or Loans for Peerages) was a political scandal in the United Kingdom in 2006 and 2007 concerning the connection between political donations and ...
" scandal.
Some of its provisions came into effect upon it receiving assent, with other provisions commencing on other dates.
Coordinated Online Record of Electors
The proposed Coordinated Online Record of Electors was never established, and plans for it were shelved by the
coalition government in 2011.
The legal framework was later repealed by the
Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013.
References
External links
The Electoral Administration Act 2006 as amended from the
National Archives.
The Electoral Administration Act 2006 as originally enacted from the
National Archives.
Explanatory notesto the Electoral Administration Act 2006.
*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080228190908/http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/notes/snpc-04276.pdf House of Commons Library - Armed Forces Votingbr>
Statutory Instrument 2006 No. 3412 (C. 128) a
Statutory Instrument issued by the
Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs
The secretary of state for constitutional affairs was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Department for Constitutional Affairs. The position existed from 2003 to 200 ...
, 18 December 2006, bringing much of the Act into legal effect
Research on Electoral Administration
{{UK legislation
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2006
Election law in the United Kingdom
Election legislation