Policy Background Postal and Proxy Voting
The 2016 Pickles Report also considered the current arrangements in relation to postal and proxy voting (collectively called ‘absent’ or ‘remote’ voting) at elections.
	The report noted that the existing availability of postal voting on demand in Great Britain encouraged many legitimate electors to use their vote effectively and engage with the democratic process and concluded that it should be allowed to continue. At the same time, it considered how the security of current absent voting arrangements could be strengthened and made a number of recommendations to achieve this.
	This Act implements recommendations made in the report to improve the integrity and robustness of both postal and proxy voting.
	In particular, under the present system, there is no statutory prohibition on political campaigners handling postal votes belonging to others. The Pickles Report noted that this left scope for the integrity of postal voting to be undermined and recommended that completed postal ballot packs should only be handled by an individual who is a family member or designated carer of the voter. The Act introduces a ban and a new criminal offence on the handling by a political campaigner of a postal ballot paper/voting document that was issued to someone, and allows a limit to be set (the number to be specified in secondary legislation) on the number of electors on behalf of whom a person may hand in postal votes to a Returning Officer or at a polling station.
	Currently, electors in England, Scotland and Wales may apply for a postal vote for either a particular election, a specified period of time that may cover a number of polls, or to vote by post on an indefinite basis. Electors who have a postal vote on a long-term basis are currently required to provide a fresh signature every five years to ensure the data held by Electoral registration officers is up to date and reduce the risk of postal votes being rejected at polls due to personal identifiers (e.g., a person’s signature) no longer matching those originally given. The Pickles Report concluded that removing the ability to hold a postal vote on an indefinite basis, and instead requiring electors to reapply at specified intervals, would provide a more regular basis for review and assessment of the eligibility and veracity of applications and would strengthen the integrity of postal voting. The Act implements this recommendation, requiring postal voters in Great Britain to re-apply every three years to continue to vote by this method.
	Current rules also allow a person to act as a proxy for up to two electors and an unlimited number of close relatives in any constituency or any electoral area at a local election. Lord Pickles found that these current requirements gave potential for coercion in the appointment of proxies in areas where fraud was already an issue, and recommended limiting to two the number of electors that someone could be appointed to act as a proxy for, regardless of relationship. The Act introduces a limit of four on the number of electors for whom, regardless of relationship, a person can act as a proxy but specifying that within the four electors, no more than two electors can be domestic electors. Domestic electors are those electors who are neither service electors nor overseas electors.
	Currently, requirements protecting the secrecy of a person’s vote are in place for people voting in a polling station. The Pickles Report noted the secrecy of the ballot as fundamental for voters to be able to cast their vote without pressure to vote in a specific way, and recommended that secrecy provisions be extended to those voting by proxy and through a postal vote to prevent undue influence, and assist in the prosecution of cases where the latter may have occurred. In line with this recommendation, the Act extends secrecy provisions to postal and proxy voting.