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Contents
Annual Canvass: 16-17 year
olds
Guidance on attainers at this
year’s canvass.
Issue 13 (Scotland) – 5 July 2012
Communications resources
to support the annual
canvass
Further information on support
available.
Annual canvass: 16-17 year olds
We’ve received several requests for advice on attainers at the
2012 canvass and the impact that the proposed rescheduling
of the autumn 2013 canvass and publication of the revised
register to the first part of 2014 will have.
Law Commission
consultation
Reminder to contribute your
thoughts and views through the
consultation process.
For the reasons explained below, it is important that you have
a system in place that will allow you to capture the details from
the canvass returns of anyone turning 17 on or after 1
December 2012.
What do you think of our
website?
Request for feedback on the
Commission’s website.
The Form of Canvass Regulations 2006 set out, both on the
face of the form and in the notes, that any 16 – 17 year olds
should be included on the form, irrespective of whether or not
they will attain voting age before the end of the period of 12
months following the relevant date.
However, for the purposes of appearing on the register,
Section 4(5) of the RPA 1983 makes it clear that only those
who will attain voting age before the end of the period of 12
months following the relevant date (so in this case 1
December 2013) are entitled to be registered. This is the
section that also sets out that the date on which the person will
attain voting age must be given in their entry in the register.
Therefore although the names and dates of birth of all 16 - 17
year olds should be collected in this year’s canvass (2012)
only those who turn 18 before 1 December 2013 should be
added to the register.
Anyone who turns 17 on or after 1 December 2012 cannot be
added to the revised register published by 1 December 2012.
As a result of the proposed postponement of the annual
canvass 2013 to early 2014, the impact will be that those 16
year olds won’t be added to the register (unless they make a
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rolling registration application) until publication of the register
following that canvass in spring 2014. Normally, they would
have been added to the revised register published by 1
December 2013.
For this reason, it is important that you have a system in place
for capturing the details of anyone turning 17 after 1
December 2012 identified on returned canvass forms or by
any other means, so that you can use the information to target
these attainers accordingly by rolling registration.
If you have any further queries on this issue then please
contact us.
Communications resources to support the
annual canvass
We have produced a series of resources to support Electoral
Registration Officers with their annual canvass public
awareness plans.
We are providing annual canvass artwork templates to
download and adapt for your own public awareness activity.
These are available in Adobe InDesign and high-res-pdf
format, which your printer, designer or communications
department should be able to open and edit. All templates are
available to download from www.dopolitics.org.uk.
Parts of the templates can be edited, such as inserting local
contact details and logos. However, due to copyright reasons,
you must agree not to edit any elements of the templates not
mentioned above, including the photographs, overall format or
headlines on the ads when you download them. Also, the
templates can only be used during the annual canvass period
due to copyright issues. Please contact our Campaigns team if
you have any queries regarding appropriate use of the
templates.
We have also put together two template news releases to
encourage people to register to vote. One is for the start of the
annual canvass, the second for the end of the canvass. EROs
may adapt the templates but we would appreciate it if the
'About My Vote' mention was retained in the release, so that
we can monitor any media coverage. It will help us to
understand who is using the templates and whether they help
EROs to communicate with under-registered audiences.
For any further information on the Do Politics Centre and use
of advertising templates please contact Jess Bishop
(jbishop@electoralcommission.org.uk)or for PR and press
enquiries our Press office (0131 225 0211).
Law Commission consultation reminder
The Law Commission’s consultation on the scope of its
electoral law reform project will continue to run until 17
September
We hope you’ll feel able to take this opportunity to share your
views on this important work, either by responding directly to
the Law Commission or by discussing any aspect of the
consultation with Commission staff. If you’d like to talk through
your thoughts then please contact your local Commission
team in the first instance.
What do you think of our website?
We’d like to improve our website and need your feedback to
do this. If you would like to give us your feedback please visit
www.electoralcommisison.org.uk/online-survey to answer five
short questions about your experience of using our website.
The Electoral Commission
Lothian Chambers, 59-63 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1RN
Tel: 0131 225 0200 Textphone: 18001 0131 225 0200
infoscotland@electoralcommission.org.uk
www.electoralcommission.org.uk
© The Electoral Commission 2012