Any Poll Clerks or Presiding Officers out there?

[Watto1]

Are you all set for tomorrow? Got all your goodies yet?! What will I forget and have to ask dh to bring for me?

not me, my area doesnt have local elections this year. But I was thinking about applying to be a ? station clerk next time : the junior of the polling station staff. I've only done overnight counts, but I make too many mistakes (I just cant' count quickly accurately at 2am). What's involved with being a poll clerk? I think it means checking documents and watching boxes 7am-10pm, right?

Lots of drinks, sandwiches and snacks and I mean loads.

@lljkk The presiding officer checks all the documentation so the poll clerk doesn’t need to worry about that. Basically, the poll clerk checks the voter is eligible to vote (we have a list), issues the ballot paper and ticks the voter off on the list (so that they can’t vote twice). Yes, someone has to be with the ballot box at all times.

It’s a long day. We get to the polling station at about 6:30am to set up ready to open the poll at 7 on the dot. Then we work through until the poll closes at 10, unless there is a queue. Everyone who joins the queue before 10 is entitled to vote so it can take longer.

Last time (Welsh Assembly election) was hectic from start to finish (Covid precautions slowed things down) but local elections are usually quieter. We take books/magazines to keep us occupied in quiet periods. I’ve taken my knitting before!

It can be crazy but 99.9% of the voters are lovely and I enjoy doing it.

Not doing it this year as I have a 19 month old and it's just too much at the moment. I've been a poll clerk about 6-7 times before and usually enjoy it! I work in London so occasionally there will be the odd celeb to add some excitement in. Local elections tend to be very boring compared to GEs fewer slow periods.

I usually make sure I've got some good M&S biscuits, plenty of hydration and if it's convenient on the way in sometimes I'll have a Maccers breakfast! The few years I've taken a salad or heathy meal in I've usually ended up taking it home again!

Have fun. Aside from the occasional arsehole I've usually had a good day

thanks for info. I helped friend (presiding officer) pack down once. I think I will apply for clerk if chance arises.

Presiding officer here

Off for final briefing and collect ballot box, ballots, stationery posters etc at half 4. Just local election so expect it to be quiet although hoping better than the day we only handed out 148 ballots the entire day !

We have 2 stations in the same hall, my fellow presiding officer is a first timer (previously my poll clerk) and 3 first time poll clerks . Very happy that we have an extra poll clerk who is a native speaker for the large ethnic minority in the ward.

Expecting to be spending the day checking everything running smoothly , dealing with candidates , agents , tricky electors and taking in postal votes as returns have been poor so far

My wonderful DH will deliver bacon rolls for all five of us at 10am which is a real treat. We have excellent facilities in a church hall with hot water urn, fridge and microwave

Have got lots of food and then the following:

Magazines
Phone charger
Extra socks , hot water bottle, blanket (have to have all windows and doors open for covid ventilation)
Tea bags , coffee, milk
Radio
Finger bobble as I'm doing the count immediately afterwards
Emergency haribo for the conclusion of the post work rush when the last hour drags like glue

We have been told that next year we will be requiring id from electors . Really think that could be a nightmare, especially if we end up with it as an early general election

I fundamentally disagree with requiring id as it will disenfranchise many more electors than it will deter fraudulent ones

First time poll clerk here! A bit nervous, but looking forward to it! Mostly not looking forward to the day dragging to be honest.

I'm just doing some cooking just now for my meals to reheat and packing all my snacks. I'm lucky to be in a community centre with decent kitchen and toilet facilities. Local elections not usually too busy so making sure got phone charger, iPad and a book. No idea who I'm working alongside yet tho so fingers crossed a decent team

Long time Presiding Officer here.

My tips:

For poll clerks - check, check and double check each other's tasks to ensure you are marking the register correctly and giving the correctly numbered ballot papers.

For Presiding officers - do a test run of the ballot accounts during a quiet moment, to make sure everything adds up and you know what you are doing at close of poll. Fill in as much of your paperwork as you can early, so that when the poll closes, you don't have lots to do. During the last hour, pack away whatever you don't need eg excess signs and stationery.

For all
Wear lots of layers in case you get cold/too hot.
Bring a hot water bottle in case it gets chilly.
Don't forget a phone charger and plug.
Tak some hand cream, as my hands get dry from all of papers.

I used to live doing election duties when I worked for the local council. Used to be presiding officer and then race through the countryside with the ballot boxes strapped into my rear seat to deliver them to the count, and then stay on for counting duties.
Best location was at the end of a parade of shops so we got fish and chips at tea time.
Hardest one where the station covered 3 big homes for blind people - had to really brush up on how proxies worked, and what assistance I was allowed to give. They all arrived in minibuses so had to be on the ball to deal with 15 at a time 😆.

@Racingadmin I used to be Presiding Officer in a tiny village with less than 100 on the list - and some of them were postal.

We managed to get a tv organised one year. We also had a delivery of fish n chips for tea.
It's amazing how much cross stitch I could manage and my Poll Clerk (who I worked with anyway) managed to shift a huge backlog of stuff, which he then dumped on me the next day, oops🤦‍♀️

For any newbies - don't panic and take advice from@purpledagger start to pack up in the last half hour or so.

Good Luck everyone.

I’m in a school with easy access to loos and a kettle so pretty good this time. In previous elections I’ve been in a portacabin and someone’s garage which were both freezing. Once I was at a university as they had enough students in the Halls of Residence to warrant their own polling station. We had 26 voters all day. The time dragged. One amusing moment was when a voter came in holding our Polling Station sign that she had taken off the wall outside and asked if she could keep it as a souvenir of her first time voting!

I’m taking a hot water bottle, blanket and a cushion (bum went to sleep last time after hours sitting on a plastic chair with no chance to stretch my legs as we were so busy). I could barely move the next day as my back had seized up.

Last time I worked with the same presiding officer that I’m working with this tomorrow. Her mum lived down the road and appeared with roast dinners for us both at dinner time! Got my fingers crossed for a repeat tomorrow 🤞

I’ve bought my goodies, packed my bag and set my alarm for the crack of dawn. I’m good to go!

Bag packed, list made of stuff I need to do in the morning, DH persuaded to get up and give me a lift as it's a slightly longer walk than I anticipated.

I've just been asked to do the count on Friday as well, so I'm just trying to make sure I've anticipated everything for the next couple of days as DH will be in charge.

All done until the next time. Went fine but very quiet at times. My PO’s mum did even better than the roast dinner of last time - she went to the chippy for us! Result!

I’m actually of the opposite opinion. I find it really unsafe when I walk into a polling place and say my name is « Ann Smith » and they say back « 1 Apple road? » Which means anyone could say any name and you just say yes. At least ask me to confirm my address! Every single voting time this happens and I always wonder why they do this and it’s so unsafe and means people can defraud the system.
it won’t put people off, If someone has no drivers licence or passport they will still have had the polling card through the door, there is no one in the country who won’t have 1 out of polling card/passport/drivers licence, so no issue.

We are trained differently from your poll station . Even if presented with the poll card we need to have the elector verbally tell us their first line of the address and then name .

Cannot just go with them putting the poll card in front of us as they could have picked up another family members ie mum and we would mark mum off the register and then be totally screwed when mum turns up later to vote

Yesterday was pretty slow with only a 28% turnout including postal votes . Biggest issue was complaining tellers and agents who didn't like being asked to not approach electors for numbers until after they had voted .

Also lots of suspicion from one party that we were rigging for the blue candidate . Blue candidate was from an ethnic minority with a large presence in the ward and we had a native speaker poll clerk to assist us . Apparently he could have been telling people how to vote without us English speakers knowing - utter racist BS but things were very tetchy as it was a close race

Regretted doing the count afterwards as was on a table for a vet close ward . 40 votes between 2 candidates in the end and 15 spoilt ballots so we had to recount twice to satisfy the candidates and agents .

Didn't finish until 2am , having started at 6am and now working my regular job today