Students left unable to vote
Hundreds of students were left unable to cast their crucial votes in a closely fought council election last Thursday, after mistakes by college and election staff meant they were excluded from the electoral register. The Oxford Student has learnt that administrative blunders left between 150 and 200 Lincoln students disenfranchised in the Carfax ward, where the election was won by just twenty three votes.
Green councillor Shushila Dhall defeated Liberal Democrats candidate Gabriel Timothy Grant by only 2.5% of the total vote, meaning that the lost student votes could have been crucial to the overall result. Victorious candidate Dhall said, “I’m very sad that people were disenfranchised.” She refuted suggestions that the error had put her win in doubt. She said, “It’s a marginal seat. It was a close seat but I don’t think anyone can tell whether it would have changed anything.
Gabriel Timothy Grant, the Liberal Democrat candidate who was narrowly defeated last Thursday, said, “Lincoln should think about doing things differently next time. I’m disappointed and it’s a shame to hear they made mistakes. It was an uphill battle to oust the incumbent, but I will try not to dwell on it,” he said.
Office staff at Lincoln College failed to sign up any of the college’s first year students onto the electoral register, whilst a number of finalists and postgraduates were also omitted. The Oxford Elections Office say they were unaware of the scale of the error until after the election, as it was initially anticipated that the names of only a few students living out of college on Museum Road had been omitted.
In a private email seen by The Oxford Student, the Lincoln Bursar Tim Knowles said, “Rachel normally does it, but this year she was on maternity leave. The rest of us overlooked the deadline, and when reminded we got our return in in a bit of a rush. Andrea did it, from lists provided by Lynn, but I have to admit I didn’t check it. “It is an absolute monumental pain of a job, the electoral registration database requires manual input of every person’s details, all in a particular format.
It’s not difficult to make mistakes.” Officials at Lincoln College have called for the rules for voter registration to be changed, to prevent a repetition of the same mistakes in the future. In the email, the Bursar blamed the Election Office for the College’s mistakes. “We do the electoral register each year, normally to an impossibly tight deadline in mid-October. It’s stupid timing, because it is just when we are at our most busy and accommodation lists are all a bit haywire.
But the Council insists on this timing.” He told The Oxford Student that the mid-October deadline insisted on by the Oxford Elections Office makes life very difficult for college administrators, as it coincides with the start of term when staff are concerned with updating records and adding first years. But Electoral Officer Martin John said, “The rules are legislative. We do an annual audit of people each year and the law requires us to submit an accurate register by December 1st.
“Colleges cannot be allowed to delay submitting a list until after December, as it would skew the electoral register significantly. We recognise that Lincoln was hit at the worst time possible, and we’re grateful that colleges make great efforts to submit lists on time.” Disenfranchised students only discovered that they were not registered when they did not receive their polling cards with everyone else in April.
Students in the affected ward have reacted angrily to their disenfranchisement. Lincoln JCR President Ollie Munn said, “It’s extremely unfortunate that Lincoln students weren’t able to express their views”. Second-year Lincoln student Jo Burch said, “I was very annoyed with college that I was not able to get my voice heard as I would have definitely voted.
We were sent an email saying that it won’t happen again in the future, but what use is that to us now? With such a close result the 200 extra students could have made a big difference.” Lincoln finalist Alex Baker has made an official complaint to the Election Office about their policy with regard to students.
He stated, “I feel that the Council’s policy toward colleges with regard to the updating of the electoral register is massively amplifying the possibility that errors will be made, and hence many students like myself are being disenfranchised through little fault of their own.
Baker told The Oxford Student, “There needs overall to be greater clarity in this process so that students can share the burden of ensuring they’re on the electoral register, and knowing when to check for themselves.” The deadline for adding to the rolling register this year was 13th March, making it too late for those affected to do anything about it. The government has recognised the problem, and from this year the rolling register will be open until much closer to the elections.
In a separate problem, St. John’s students were prevented from voting because polling station staff were unaware that those living in offsite college accommodation were registered under Museum Road and not St John’s. Staff only realised their mistake later in the day, after some students had already been turned away without a vote.
Martin John said, “This is a classic student problem • when asked where they live students name their college, which is their postal address, even if their residential address is elsewhere, such as on Museum Road. The staff are briefed that this is usually the case, so clearly a mistake was made if the pollsters failed to check with students. We apologise and will endeavour to beef up our briefing for staff in the future.
Joe Skeaping, a second-year History student at St John’s, said, “We went and said we were from St John’s… They said they’d had some problems with John’s students before. But then we realised we might be registered as Blackhall Street residents and when we looked at the list we easily found our names. I think it was the idiocy of a few that prevented them voting.” However, the Oxford Election Office refused to accept blame for the incident.
“Students need to realise they are ultimately responsible, both for checking their college has registered them properly and for giving right details at polling stations,” John said. A spokeswoman from Oxford University said, “This is a College issue. As to how students can ensure they can vote in the future, they can either check with their college that they have been registered, or register themselves.”
11th May 2006