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| Long title | An Act to make provision in relation to the registration of electors and the keeping of electoral registration information; standing for election; the administration and conduct of elections and referendums; and the regulation of political parties. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 2006 c. 22 |
| Introduced by | Harriet Harman[2] |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales; Scotland; Northern Ireland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 11 July 2006 |
| Commencement | Multiple dates[3] |
Status: Amended | |
| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The Electoral Administration Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, 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.
- 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 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 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 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";[4] 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,[5] with other provisions commencing on other dates.[3]