IT may only be three months into the existence of the new Jersey Electoral Authority but its chair John Everett is already thinking about the future.
One of the authority’s most important duties within six months of the elections will be to submit a report on the 2022 process to the Privileges and Procedures Committee for presentation to the States.
The Elections Law requires the authority to use that report to advance any recommendations it might have on changes to the law or to the practice of the elections but Mr Everett – perhaps not surprisingly at this early stage – is circumspect.
‘The electoral system is set by the politicians and the JEA is there to oversee it. I’m sure all members have personal views on what system would be best but we are here to do what’s in the law effectively. We will be sticking to what went well and what could have gone better. I guess there might be parts of that which relate to “this was changed” and it caused these difficulties.
‘We’ll be commenting on how this election worked but, for example, if we get a lot of reports that people turn up and don’t understand why they are voting for someone in St Lawrence if you are [elsewhere] in that constituency we would certainly pass comment on it,’ he said.
That example emerges, of course, because this election is not only the first for the authority but also the first for Islanders organised into new constituencies for Deputies– the majority crossing parish boundaries – and no longer voting for Island-wide Senators.
To address these new circumstances, the authority has been busy since its lay members – Alex Hodnett and Eleanor Sharples, as well as Mr Everett himself – were appointed earlier this year to join the States and Judicial Greffiers and a representative of the parishes. Those appointments followed from the States’ decision to progress one of the recommendations of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s election observers in their report following the 2018 elections.
They advocated ‘the creation of a permanent election administration body independent of the three branches of State to provide continuous oversight and review of the electoral legal framework, including oversight of candidate and voter registration, implementation of campaign, campaign finance and media provisions, and electoral dispute resolution’.
Mr Everett breaks those responsibilities into two complementary areas: oversight and the administration of the election, a combination he says he finds ‘quite unusual’ for such a body.
‘The main functions are that we had a role in the nominations process which has just finished – the JEA approved the nomination of the candidates once they were checked by the parishes; we have a role in designing a code of conduct for candidates, how they should behave during the election period, which is up on the website; we have a role in looking at election expense returns to make sure people haven’t been spending more than they should do; and we also have a role dealing with complaints,’ he explained.
While it does not directly regulate hustings – or other public appearances of candidates in the run-up to the elections – the authority has issued guidance about the principles that should underlie such events.
‘From our perspective what is important is that someone doesn’t set up a hustings meeting but only invite half the relevant candidates, for example. There is a statement on our website and our view is that all relevant candidates should be invited; there should be sufficient notice for them; and it’s important that no adverse inference is drawn if a candidate can’t attend,’ he said.
The authority has also issued candidates with a reminder about the importance of operating within the permitted election expenditure allowances – both for individual candidates and for parties – and warned that it will audit those declarations, the detail of which it is currently discussing with the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Candidates are not allowed to spend more than the permitted figures which are related to their constituencies – taking the example of St Brelade, the maximum spend per candidate is just over £3,000, whether they are an independent or a party candidate.
For party candidates, party spending eats into the individual candidate’s allocation which is spread across the party’s candidates but Mr Everett explained that if party spending was on leaflets that only promoted one or two of the party’s candidates it would be possible to argue that the allocation should be spread across those one or two candidates only.
Such calculations are grist to the mill for a man whose professional life is spent as group chief risk officer of an international trust and corporate services provider. For four years he was deputy director general of the Jersey Financial Services Commission where he was responsible for liaison with the government, and he worked in policy development for the UK Financial Services Authority for 11 years.
Elections have always exerted a fascination. As a student Mr Everett was on the board of directors of the Electoral Reform Society, the pressure group that campaigns for proportional representation and which provides election services on a commercial basis and for voluntary groups.
‘While I was at university a lot of the clubs and societies in the student union had elections. I’ve always found them quite interesting things – I don’t know why. I quite like organising things and making them more effective, and in this role which is unpaid it’s an opportunity to give something back to Jersey. I’ve always looked for things where I think I can help with my experience,’ he said.
Commenting on the nominations which were formally released last week, Mr Everett has been struck by numbers broadly comparable to 2018 – 93 candidates this year compared with 91 four years ago. He detects what he allows himself to call an ‘improvement’ in the reduction in uncontested elections, only eight this time compared with 11 unopposed Constables and three unopposed Deputies previously, although the option for the electorate to vote for ‘none of the above’ – technically ‘none of the candidates’, he points out – means that all candidates effectively have to face their electorate at the polling station.
Next month’s elections will be the third in Jersey that Mr Everett has observed – he arrived in Jersey in 2014 and was then able to vote four years later. He is conscious of the comments that the Island has a low turn-out on polling day, so that there is an obligation to make things as straightforward as possible for voters.
‘People vote for all sorts of different reasons and all you can do with an electoral system is to try to give people a choice of candidates because then you are giving them a positive reason to vote if there is a choice of different ideas and policies. Then it’s over to people if they feel strongly enough to go and exercise their vote. Obviously you can try to make it easier practically to vote and that’s a balance between ease of voting and security,’ he said.
Just weeks away from this year’s elections, Mr Everett has a parting message: ‘Maybe there’s an impression that because candidates have been announced that’s it and if you haven’t registered to vote you can’t vote. That’s not the case, you can register all the way up to the week before the election. If people think they would like to vote for a candidate if they are in that constituency, they can still register,’ he said.
- If you are not currently registered, you can do so until mid-day on 15 June (when you can vote at your polling station on 22 June).
- If you were already registered by 10 May you have the options to: vote in person at the polling station on 22 June; vote in person at the pre-poll from 13 to 17 June at St Paul’s Centre, St Helier; vote by post (you must register by mid-day on 1 June).
