Electoral Administration Act 2006
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The Electoral Administration Act 2006 (c. 22) is an act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...
, 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 The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...
). * Reduces the age of candidacy 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 ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...
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 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 A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
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. * Requires political parties to declare large loans. This provision was introduced as an amendment, surviving much parliamentary ping-pong, following the " Cash for Peerages" 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 A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...
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
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.
The Electoral Administration Act 2006
as originally enacted from the
National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...
.
Explanatory notes
to 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, 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 Constitutional laws of the United Kingdom