Elections in Arun earlier this year ‘probably most complicated we’ve ever had to organise’

A bumper election day with 21 individual polls went ahead on May 6 after being delayed due to the pandemic. But, despite their efforts, Arun District Council received complaints from the public.

A review of this year’s elections was presented during a meeting of Arun District Council’s corporate support committee yesterday evening (September 28). 

Chief executive Nigel Lynn was due to present the report but could not attend due to the fuel shortage.

Officers presented the report instead and said that planning for the 2021 elections started in autumn 2020 at a time when ‘severe restrictions were in place’ and with ‘no news about a vaccination programme’.

The council relies on members of the public to staff polling stations but only 150 of the 480 on its database said yes to working on May 6. 

Despite continuing recruitment efforts, staff dropped out at the last minute and officers said this was a major factor in reducing the number of polling stations.

Larger venues were used to aid social distancing but this also meant they could accommodate multiple polling stations under one roof.

But councillors said that changes to polling stations caused difficulties for residents.

Jacky Pendleton (Con, Middleton-on-Sea) said: “The polling station in Climping was not open.

“Particularly with elderly and more frail residents it did cause an issue.

“Because part of my area is rural, it was very difficult for some of my residents to get to Yapton from Climping to vote.”

Paul English (Con, Felpham East) said he received ‘one complaint after another’ because polling stations had changed.

He said: “Many residents don’t have transport and had to travel quite some distance to their polling station. 

“In future elections one of the big things must be a review of where residents go to vote.”

Mr English claimed that people who were living next to a polling station had to travel miles to another one in order to vote.

Council officers said they ‘looked very carefully’ at the distances voters had to travel, adding: “It is very difficult, in such a rural district, to provide ideal locations for polling stations.

“Some people complained about this, asking if we would go back to normal in future and we reassured them this would be the case.”

Tablets were used for the first time to ‘make voting easier’ but resulted in incorrect ballot papers being issued.

Council officers said 96 people were affected and this was reported to the Electoral Commission and presiding officers.

They said: “We haven’t committed to using tablets from that provider until we’re confident it won’t happen again.”

Electors were strongly encouraged to vote by post which saw a 25 per cent increase in registrations when compared to the last European Union elections. 

Postal vote turnout was also up at 70 per cent and officers said it would be ‘interesting to see’ if this had a long term impact on the way people vote.

Counting of votes and postal votes took ‘longer than normal’ due to reduced staff numbers and the number of different ballot papers which people could have returned. 

No members of the press attended the counts.