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Norwich North by-election
The Norwich Northby-election took placeon 23 July 2009following the resignationof the Labour Memberof Parliament (MP),Dr Ian Gibson. Thissummary providesinformation on theadministration of theresulting by-election inthe Parliamentaryconstituency ofNorwich North.The followinginformation wasobtained during theobservation of the by-election by Commissionrepresentatives andfrom informationprovided by the ActingReturning Officer,Electoral RegistrationOfficer and their staff.Organisation
In UK Parliamentary elections inEngland and Wales, theReturning Officer may receivethe writ, declare the result andreturn the writ but all otherfunctions are carried out by the Acting Returning Officer (ARO).The ARO is a senior localgovernment officer statutorilyappointed to run the electionindependent of their localauthority position. The ARO forthe Norwich North by-electionwas Broadland District Council’sChief Executive Officer ColinBland.The Norwich North constituencyincludes parts of the two councilareas of Broadland DistrictCouncil and Norwich CityCouncil. In constituencies withboundaries that cross over localgovernment borders, theSecretary of State designatesthe lead role to the council withthe higher number of electors, inthis case Broadland, which hasan electorate of 47,362. Norwichhas an electorate of 27,762.
Timetable
 Although the short timescale forby-elections has planningimplications for the ARO, asignificant factor at NorwichNorth was that the by-electionclosely followed the 4 JuneEuropean Parliamentaryelections, meaning that systemsand procedures were already inplace.The timetable for the NorwichNorth by-election was 17 workingdays. The key dates were:• Dr Gibson resigned on 5 June2009 and the writ of electionwas issued following a motionof the House of Commons on30 June 2009.• The writ was received atBroadland on Wednesday 1July 2009 and the Notice ofElection was published onFriday 3 July.• The closing date for thedelivery of nomination paperswas Wednesday 8 July.• Applications to register to votein the by-election, or to applyfor a postal vote, had to bereceived by the ElectoralRegistration Officer byWednesday 8 July whileapplications to vote by proxy(except in the case of amedical emergency) had tobe received by Wednesday 15July.• Polling day for the by-electionwas set as Thursday 23 July.
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October 2009
 
Table 1: Reasons for postal vote rejection
The Electoral Commission:Norwich North by-election
Candidates
Twelve candidates contested theNorwich North by-election. Tencandidates stood for election asa candidate for a registeredpolitical party and twocandidates stood asindependent candidates.Political parties are required tobe registered with the ElectoralCommission if they wish theircandidates to use the registeredparty name or one of their 12descriptions on the ballot paperwhen contesting any statutoryelection in the UK.
Nominations
The nominations process wentsmoothly. The ARO offeredinformal checks of candidates’nomination papers althoughmost chose not to submitpapers for an informal check. All12 candidates who submittednomination papers remainedvalidly nominated.
Candidates’ electionexpenses
Candidates contesting a UKParliamentary by-election aresubject to a £100,000 spendinglimit, which is applicable fromthe moment a person becomesa candidate through to the dateof the poll. Expense returns withsupporting receipts must besubmitted to the ARO by everycandidate along with adeclaration from the agent,within 35 calendar days (27 August) from the date the resultof the by-election is announced.
 Absent voting
The management of absentvoting was split between the twoauthorities, Broadland Districtand Norwich City, with eachprocessing postal votes fromthe electors within theirboundaries. The AROcontracted commercialsuppliers to print the postalballots. The postal ballot packswere then assembled and sentfrom the council offices. Theprocess of printing and sendingpostal ballot packs to voters ransmoothly.More than 300 additionalelectors were granted postalvotes between the vacancyoccurring and the deadline forpostal vote applications (24working days).Postal ballot packs weredespatched to 14,462 electors(21.91% of the eligibleelectorate) on 10 July. 10,509(72.66%) completed postalvotes were received by the AROby the deadline of 10pm onpolling day, representing 30.56%of the overall turnout. NorwichCity held postal vote openingsessions on 20, 21, 22, and 23July, while Broadland heldopening sessions on the 21, 22and 23 July.The ARO undertook 100%verification of postal votingstatements. Both authoritiesopted to use electroniccomparison checking softwareto assist in their adjudication ofthe personal identifiers. Therewere minor technical delays withscanning software at the firstopening session in Norwich City.However this provedinconsequential as the ARO hadallowed for multiple openingsessions.Postal voting statements thatare subject to the verification ofpersonal identifiers can berejected for a number ofreasons. In total, 257 postalvotes were rejected by the ARO,representing less than 2% ofthose returned by the close ofpoll. A breakdown of thereasons for postal vote rejectionis shown in Table 1.
Rejected for Number of postal ballots rejected
Want of a signature and/or date of birth 156Mismatched signature and/or date of birth 101
 
Table 2: Turnout
The Electoral Commission:Norwich North by-election
Polling Day
Our observations on polling daywere that voting in pollingstations ran smoothly. The vastmajority of polling station staffhad worked at the 4 JuneEuropean Parliamentaryelections and had all attended abriefing session organised bythe elections team on how tofulfil their duties on polling day.The turnout for the NorwichNorth by-election was 45.76%compared to 61.10% at the2005 UK Parliamentary generalelection.
The count
The counting of the votes tookplace at the NorfolkShowground on Friday 24 Julyfrom 9am. Traditionally UKParliamentary by-elections arecounted directly after the closeof poll at 10pm on the Thursdaynight. However, the ARO tookthe decision to count theNorwich North by-electionballots on Friday. This allowedhim to make advancepreparations after polling hadclosed and begin the count thefollowing day with a refreshedcounting and supervising team. All of the 180 postal voteshanded in at polling stationsunderwent verification ofpersonal identifiers directly afterclose of poll, meaning theycould simply be added into theballots to be counted thefollowing day. Being able toverify postal votes on pollingnight removed any possibility ofpostal vote processing delayingthe start of the count.Communication with thosepresent at the count appearedto be sufficient, withannouncements made at keypoints, including the openingaddress and welcome from the ARO. However, someannouncements were difficult tohear as a result of theperformance of the publicaddress system and noisecreated by the large number ofmedia representatives makinglive broadcasts.Commission representativesnoted that there wasconsistency in the decisionsmade in adjudicating doubtfulballot papers, and thatcandidates and agentsobserved this process.Over 100 media representativesfrom local, national andinternational print and broadcastmedia were accredited by the ARO to attend the count. Theywere accommodated in theroom adjoining the main countvenue. In addition, a designatedarea in the count room wasprovided so that cameraoperators and reporters couldwork there throughout the daywithout encroaching on thecounting process.
The results
Tables two and three belowshow the turnout and the resultsof the by-election.
Electorate 75,124
Number of votes cast 34,377Percentage poll 45.76%Number of rejected ballot papers 282
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