At today's meeting of Salford Council's Electoral Matters committee, councillors had loads of questions about the 6th May elections, few of which could be answered. On that day, there are three elections due – for Salford City Mayor, for Greater Manchester Mayor and for all sixty local ward seats, which have already been postponed from last year due to COVID-19.
Councillors heard from officers that there had been 'no confirmation of any delay', and the advice from the Electoral Commission was 'to carry on as normal', with counting spread over two days, on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th May, and the vote counting for Greater Manchester Mayor happening within each of the ten GM boroughs rather than in Manchester.
The electoral team spoke of 'new and complex challenges', including possible last minute restrictions. Formal election notices won't be confirmed until the end of March.
Councillor Robin Garrido was worried about the logistics of collecting signatures for sixty candidate nominations given current restrictions, while Councillor King asked about socially distanced queues and the sterilization of voting cabins.
Other potential problems included the inability to knock on doors and canvass, finding suitable voting and counting premises and finding enough staff to volunteer to actually do the counting and man the polling booths. Councillors also asked whether there could be a free postal drop of election literature, like in general elections, and whether limits on election expenses could be relaxed to take account of extra measures that might have to be put in place.
The electoral team had few answers, through no fault of their own, and were waiting on advice from the Electoral Commission, with a long 'risk' and mitigation register to contemplate.
"My gut intuition is telling me that I think they should all be postponed because of the logistical complexities" said Councillor Humphreys "There's so much to do and organise...I just think that it's a bit too soon to be putting people through all that stress and aggravation. An autumn election seems much more like common sense to me but we will watch this space..."
Committee Chair, Councillor Lancaster agreed..."We can only go by the guidelines...I think a lot of us share your views..."
If the elections do go ahead, a lot more people are likely to participate through postal voting – to register and for more details – click here
Update: 4pm...
In answer to a question by the Salford Star at today's GM Leaders press conference, Andy Burnham said that he didn't know himself whether the Greater Manchester Mayoral Election and the others are to take place...
"All I can say is we were canvassed for our opinion about the timing of the May elections a few weeks ago by civil servants in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, and I think the consensus here at the time was that it would be safer to go towards the later part of the summer or indeed into September" he said, adding that views should be sought from people running the elections rather than those standing to avoid political vested interests.
In this sense, a survey from the Local Government Association also underlined that it would be 'safer to go later'...
"It's gone extremely quiet on the Government front" Burnham said "and in political circles I think there is a growing expectation that it's looking like the May elections will go ahead. It's a confusing situation and I do think it needs clearing up. The key has got to be, not a political consideration but a safety consideration.
"That's got to be the driving consideration here" he emphasised "Is it safe to have an election campaign? Is it safe to ask everybody to go out of their homes to the polls? And do local government have the resources to make the polling stations COVID secure?...The silence and secrecy around it suggests that the political considerations maybe overriding the safety considerations and that, genuinely, can't be possibly be right..."
Photos of 2019 election by Louise Garman
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