AIBU to resent tory party representative standing outside polling station asking for polling number?

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I don't think it should be allowed. I first thought she might be part of the management team for the polling station as I didn't see her badge identifying her as a member of the Tory party. I realised that it would be unlikely that they would ask your polling number outside the building. I asked why she wanted to know. She replied that it was so we didn't get phoned later. I said that I thought that voting was meant to be confidential, after which she ignored me!

Mine was a Lib Dem.

Tellers are a normal and legitimate presence, my DM has been one frequently in the past. You are not entitled to speak to them but you’re not helping any particular party by doing so. I think one of them main things they want to know is if their key supporters have voted, or need chivying to the polls. If you don’t speak to them you’re not likely to have been one of their supporters so it’s less relevant.

Ps I think it’s common for them to sit together and for the parties to share with each other the info they have.

Very lovely Green Party at mine. Made no attempt to talk to me about the election, just a very nice guy making chit chat about the weather.

Tbh I think it is to get people to vote regardless. I have had Labour Liberal and Conservatives knocking on my door offering me lifts in a couple of areas I have lived urging me to vote when it gets late on Election Day and I hadn’t voted because I had been at work all day and only just got back.

There was a Lib Dem wearing big rosette out in front of mine doing it

Well turns out your assumption is wrong as I am 60 and have voted in many elections. By the number of posters stating that they haven't encountered tellers, it would appear that there are loads of us who live in constituencies where tellers are not a thing.

I got accosted by one outside the polling station where the blue badge bay was. I was trying to get my disabled child into the car and had to tell one no 4 times. Even when I was struggling with my child they carried on.

Thinking about it I only saw them once and I thought it was a last minute attempt to get you to vote for that particular party. Is it against rules to effectively advertise for a party outside a polling station?

You're not obliged to tell them anything.

There are strict rules about rosettes, I think they can be the right colour but no logo. Sometimes it part of mind games to make one party think your polling is telling you something different to theirs. And tellers often share numbers, and buy each other coffee.

You’re so lucky. Outside ours we have the bloke from the monster raving looney party trying, pushily, to make people dance with him. I now vote by post!

I wish you weren't told to bring your polling card to vote

You are not told to bring your polling card to vote. You are told the opposite, in fact. It says on the card You do not need to take this card with you in order to vote'.

That's just telling, which all the parties do. It's part of the electoral process, and you're not obliged to give your polling number if you don't want to, so not a big deal.

This is perfectly normal. I have seen them every time I have voted over the last 40 years. Usually Labour and LibDem where I live now. They ask only for polling card number.

Same here. Think it might depend on where you live? Rural areas not so likely to happen maybe.

I had no idea what they were, just assumed it was part of the process. I had a Lib Dem and a Tory, went to the Lib Dem as she was marginally closer. She was very nice, didn't vote for them though. Hope this doesn't mean I'm going to get even more Lib Dem bumph, the ridiculous quantity of leaflets I've received from them over the past few weeks is one reason why I didn't vote for them - 27 one week! Poor trees :(

My Dad used to make a challenge of avoiding them. There were always loads when I lived at home, 1997 especially was nuts. I haven't seen one since I moved out.

I’ve seen this with tellers from more than one party outside. People tend to favour giving their poll number to one or the other of the tellers, but they share them with each other ( or they used to) - all they’re interested in is finding out who has voted and matching it to their canvassing.

There’s been no canvassing around here this election, and there were no tellers at the polling station either.

I know it happens, but I've never seen a teller in all my years of voting.

But the Tories are desperate, our MP was knocking doors on our street this week and that's never happened before. We're not a street anyone normally bothers with, maybe the marked list shows we have a high turnout? I know the Tories are pretty worried that they'll do even worse than predicted under a low turnout this time around.

Poor woman she should just go home and have a coffee there’s literally no point them bothering at this stage

I had a Lib Dem do the same to me. I have never heard of a teller - it would be common decency to explain why they were asking and point out they were not official poll staff. Put me right off the Lib Dem party. I thought she was an official and she never offered that she was not - she even asked me to turn my polling card over so she could copy down the number.

I'd never seen a teller until we moved here, to a very small town in seat which has been solidly Tory since it was created 40 years ago. So although I knew what they were doing and why, I found it bizarre that a Tory teller appeared in 2019, bearing in mind that at the previous election the Tories had got 56% of the vote. It must have paid off, as in 2019 they got 62%!

<on edit> - the Tories are the only party that hasn't even canvassed this time around. I suspect they'll probably win anyway, not that it matters.

I've been a teller several times and people get very angry about being asked for their numbers.
I've had men shout in my face ("it's supposed to be a secret ballot").

I used to be a number-taker when I was a kid and my dad was a local councillor decades ago. This was pre-technology so what would happen is before the election the local area would be canvassed and a carefully typed out list complied of all those who said they were going to vote for you. Then, when those people went to vote, we took their number and they could be crossed off the list. Later in the day/evening, volunteers would go knocker-upping (yes, really!) and knock on the doors of those who hadn't voted to remind them/ offer lifts to the polling station.