Review of Polling Places and Polling Districts 2011

Under the Electoral Administration Act 2006 all local authorities are required to complete a review of their parliamentary polling districts and polling places at least every four years.

The last review in Southampton took place in 2007 and polling places are kept under review annually following an election as a result of comments received from the presiding officers, councillors, electors etc. Where possible the council tries to minimise the impact of elections within the community, for example we try not to use schools to avoid any unnecessary impact on education and we endeavour to minimise the use of portacabins so that residents are not affected by the noise from generators.

However we also have to balance this with the need to ensure that electors are able to cast their vote at an election as easily as possible. Thought must be given, for example, to the distance people have to travel to vote and any barriers to them getting there, such as major roads; does the building have good access for wheelchair users or pushchairs; does it have parking spaces and good public transport nearby. There are a large number of considerations to be reviewed and the final decision has to be a balance between all the possible contributing factors.

When undertaking a review, the law says that an authority must:

a) seek to ensure that all the electors in the constituency have such reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable in the circumstances;
b) seek to ensure that so far as is reasonable and practicable, the polling places they are responsible for are accessible to all electors, including those who are disabled, and when considering the designation of a polling place, must have regard to the accessibility needs of disabled persons.

At the beginning of the review a notice is published with details of the review, including when and where comments or representations can be made.

Any elector in the constituency may make a representation in relation to the size of district boundaries and the location and suitability of polling places. The council also welcomes comments or representations from any other interest parties such as Councillors, local political parties, organisations or individuals with expertise in access for persons with any type of disability and other community groups. A form has been created to help people provide their comments which can be found via the link in the left hand menu to the 'forms and documents' page. The form is not compulsory but any comments must be made in writing and will be published on the forms and documents page as part of the review. The deadline for comments or representations is 31st August 2011.

As part of the review the council will publish all correspondence sent and received, details of the results of the review including any issues raised and indeed any changes which have been approved, giving the reasons for its decisions. These documents can be found via the link in the left hand menu to the 'forms and documents' page.

When the review is complete a new register of electors will be published to reflect any changes made. This is done to coincide with the annual publication of the register on the 1st December to avoid any additional expense being incurred.

A polling district is a geographical sub-division of an electoral area. For voting purposes, each Parliamentary constituency and every local government ward is divided into smaller polling districts. Southampton has 16 wards and 95 districts

A polling place is a geographical area in which a polling station is located. However, there is no legal definition of what a polling place is. It could be as large as the polling district or as small as a particular building. In Southampton all current polling places relate to a building.

A polling station is where the voting actually takes place and must be located within the polling place designated for the particular polling district. For example the polling place could be a community centre but the polling station would be the particular room within the centre where voting takes place.