Tomorrow I’ll be a Presiding Officer in a polling station. AMA

[Tygertiger]

This may not be the most thrilling AMA in the world, but if there is anything you’ve always wondered about the voting process, go ahead!

I had one lad turn up on his actual 18th.
The electoral register has their DoB if they turn 18 that year, just to check that they are allowed to vote, so we all knew it was his birthday.

We should all ‘meet’ back on here tomorrow to drag one another through the slow bits of the day.

I wish it were Friday already!!

Ah, thanks - that's all really good to know.

I am such a geek, this is genuinely one of the most interesting things I have ever read on Mumsnet 😂

What is the correct procedure if a disabled person needs an assistant? I help my son - mostly they just nod when I tell them and let me get on with it; one year they did fill in a form, and another time one of the staff (not sure if the PO or a clerk) decided she should be his assistant but was useless as she could not grasp what help he needed.

@AgathaMystery could you explain what tactical voting devices there usually are?

I help my son to vote, but if there's an aid we can ask for it might be useful. (Our polling station staff never seem to know much about what they have)

The process is you ask the presiding officer to allow you to assist your son (ideally he asks them himself to allow you to be his assistant if possible) and then you have to complete a simple form which is called “declaration to be made by a companion of a voter with disabilities”. The PO can fill this out on your behalf and then you just check and sign it. They will record that your son was assisted to vote on a list of “voters with disabilities assisted by companions”.

I am so glad that you mentioned a “tactile voting device” because the person who answered the question about how to load her car said that they put “tactical voting devices” on the back seat and I was about to ask what on earth they were! Though I do also still want to ask what you do with mirrors, which she also mentioned!

“Tactical” and “tactile” mean completely different things. Tactical voting is when you vote for a candidate that you don’t support in order to make sure that one you like even less doesn’t get in. There is no way that would be facilitated by the polling station staff!

Good thread OP! I’ve been a poll clerk a few times, unfortunately can’t do it tomorrow, otherwise I would have loved to! I might chip in on a few answers too.

Are you in one of the areas that race to count quickly? Ours is definitely not this strict!

Mirrors are for people who may have face coverings which we have to ask them to remove to check their ID. Obviously these are generally going to be women, so all polling stations must have a female member of staff. If I have (for example) a Muslim voter wearing a face covering, I will take her to a private space and ask her to remove it so I can check her ID. There is a mirror in the private area so she can re-cover herself before coming out to vote.

Yup!

also sorry for the autocorrect of the tactile voting device 😂 there is def tactical voting too!!

Well, I’m no geek and no longer even live in the UK, and I’ve found this AMA absolutely fascinating, down to the car packing and special pencil sharpeners.

Obviously, it's all expected and agreed in advance; but I think the earlier description of it as 'carjacking' didn't seem too far off the mark - it sounds terrifying!!

Or maybe it's just me with mad visions of ninja-Gollums reaching in to snatch the ballot boxes and then cuddling them tightly, saying "My preciousssss!!!"

I went down a rabbit hole at the local election and found a list of number of voters registered at each polling Station locally...

Do you think its better to be at one of the busy ones, run off your feet, or at one of the ones with less than 100 voters, and pretty bored all day?

Well l asked for a postal vote.. but it never arrived.
So I'm hoping someone can take me to the polling station.
I didn't get a voting card.. l will take my passport.
I'm assuming my name will still be on the list?

Personally, busy, definitely.

Although I was a poll clerk at a tiny polling station while on maternity leave once. We had fewer than 50 voters across the whole day. It was a lovely chance to put my feet up. I drank hot coffee and read an entire book cover to cover!

@Tygertiger Thank you. Yeah, that kind makes sense. I always think it looks like someone behind the scenes could attacking and altering the papers with a rubber! Haha.

Thank you. I suspect that they either don't know what to do or can't be bothered!!

I wonder what the quirkiest polling station out there is? I glanced down the list of polling stations in our area and they were mainly the usual mixture of village/church halls, scout/guide huts and other community hubs, although there is one that's described as a 'portable building' in a park - presumably more like a building site office container than a portaloo "Yes, please put your completed ballot into this collection hole and then pull the dispatch lever to submit it"!!

I'm guessing there might be a few interesting places used in smaller and/or remote communities, though - anybody?!

I remember the old days when all the local schools were closed all day so that they could be used as polling stations. As kids, we loved getting an extra day off; but what a dreadful waste of resources when there were church halls and libraries available that didn't cost several hundred days of education.

Hi @AllTheChaos . Can I ask why you and your cousin weren’t able to find the answer to this question online? It’s clearly explained Here, a page which is linked from the email I received from my local authority about voting and voter ID. (Screenshot attached too). That page above also comes up when you Google.

I ask not to berate you but because you have clearly both thought about this and been worried about it. If it wasn’t easy for you to find the answer, how many other people might be put off from voting altogether if their ID has expired?

I’m in a portakabin! With a “luxury portaloo”.

Thinking again about polling cards, I suppose they also serve a valuable function of telling you where your polling station actually is.

Most of us, if in any doubt, would just go online, search for "where's my polling station?" and type in our postcode - but for folk who are not on the internet, they may well not have another easy way of knowing - especially if their station has changed from the last time.

For tomorrow, I am voting at XXXX cottage.

Which is believed to be just next door to the usual Community Hall.