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<p>The UK’s electoral registers are maintained by individual Electoral Registration
Officers appointed by each local authority in Great Britain and by the Chief Electoral
Officer in Northern Ireland. This means that it would not be feasible to identify
duplicate entries between registers without considerable additional financial and
operational resources. Providing a mechanism for EROs to compare information about
electoral register entries more automatically across all 381 registers could help
to further improve the accuracy and completeness of electoral registers and could
also help to address the risk of voting more than once at a relevant election.</p><p>It
is an offence under Section 61(2)(a) of the Representation of the People Act 1983,
for an elector to cast more than one vote on their own behalf in a UK Parliamentary
general election or at a referendum. This offence carries a fine which is unlimited
in England and Wales, or a fine not exceeding £5,000 in Scotland.</p><p>Investigations
into possible criminal offenses are a matter for the relevant police forces. The Electoral
Commission has provided advice and guidance to UK police forces about how to investigate
allegations that an individual may have voted twice, including obtaining from the
relevant Returning Officers the marked copy of the register.</p><p> </p>
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