Day of the long ballots: voters face 'unwieldy' papers

The EU referendum ballot paper - a bilingual version will be used in Wales.

Voting fever is taking over Westminster. Well, up to a point. The publication of some of the rules for the EU referendum has fuelled speculation it will be held on June 23 - and prompted further protests about the proximity of that date to the devolved elections on May 5.

A cross-party letter signed by First Minister Carwyn Jones has been sent to the prime minister warning: "The simultaneous existence of multiple party political campaigns and EU referendum campaigns would in itself pose practical and logistical difficulties, but the greater problem we anticipate is the potential for confusion as a diverse range of issues is presented to the electorate.

"This is not just a matter of respecting the integrity of the Welsh electoral debate, but of affording the EU referendum campaign the respect it deserves."

The Welsh government view is: "Since the idea of holding an EU referendum this year was first suggested we have consistently called for it to be held on a different date from that for the Assembly elections. It also needs to be sufficiently distant from them in time so that the implications of the EU question can be separately and fully explored in the referendum campaign."

The first sentence overlooks the law that rules out May 5. The second question raises the as yet unanswered question: what is sufficiently distant?

'Fanfare'

June 23 is seven weeks after May 5. Seven weeks is even longer than the last general election campaign. I suspect seven weeks of intensive campaigning on the EU will test the boredom threshold of most voters as much as it will the endurance of the political class.

Amid rather less fanfare, the Wales Office has also published rules to cover the May 5 elections to the National Assembly for Wales and the police and crime commissioner elections on the same day. If you were wondering - and who among us is not? - whether the assembly regional list ballot papers will include the names of candidates as well as parties the answer is: yes.

Mr Crabb has decided to reject advice from the Electoral Commission that reinstating names will make the ballot paper (one of three given to voters on the day) longer and the election more expensive.

Candidate names were removed in 2011 after the commission warned: "With as many as 13 parties nominating lists in some electoral regions, voters received long ballot papers which they found unwieldy to complete and submit, whether by post or in the polling station."

I asked the Wales Office why Mr Crabb had chosen to reject the commission's advice. A Wales Office spokesperson said: "The priority has to be to make the voting process as simple as possible to ensure voters know who they are voting for."

And if that's not enough news about voting, the process of choosing a Labour candidate for the Ogmore by-election (expected May 5) is about to get under way. Huw Irranca-Davies's replacement as Labour flagbearer will be selected on February 13, although a report that the short-listing will be done outside Wales is, I'm told, wrong.