Electoral Administration Bill

I shall be as brief as I can. I propose the removal of subsection (2). I have three objections to it. First, I have a fundamental objection to changing the list of electors in the middle of an election. Secondly, I believe that people should take responsibility for their own registration. We should not over-complicate the system for returning officers, and indeed those engaged in elections, to accommodate those who have failed so to do. Thirdly, the system should balance the opportunity to do what is lawful against the temptation to do what is unlawful. For many months at the beginning of this year, the Government denied that the postal vote system is open to abuse, but that blew up in their face in the Birmingham city council 2004 elections case, and indeed in the Blackburn case of 2002. I do not want us to get into a position whereby vote stealing is replaced by wrongful registration as a means of fiddling election results. Those are my philosophical reasons for objecting to the measure. In a moment, I shall move on to my practical reasons.