Polling Staff

[Allthegoodonesareg0ne]

So we are back again on July 4th!
Was wondering what kind of conditions you've had to put up with at Polling stations?!
Last elections I was in a tin box in the middle of a field with a portaloo outside. Only reachable by foot, no handwashing facilities or fridge. Was freezing and chucking it down so got soaked every comfort break but at least the milk didn't go off!
Lovely voters though and presiding officer was great to work with so could be worse!

it's always fun on the count reading what people have written (and drawn!) to spoil their ballot papers.

Giant spunking penises are good for a laugh, but if they are smaller and fit neatly within a candidate's box (!) they count as a legitimate mark and can be counted!

Wonder if the voter realises they are voting for that candidate given what they are writing!

Wow I never knew that, I thought it had to be a x and nothing else would be counted.

I find all of this fascinating and would love to do it but I’ve looked at our council before and I couldn’t find any information, I think they use council staff.

I have a question about postal votes if anyone can answer please? What happens to them when they get posted to the offices, are they taken to the relevant polling station and counted there or are they opened and counted at the council office?

Ooh another question about postal votes. What happens if your signature doesn’t quite match? Do you get informed if your vote wasn’t counted?

@Georgieporgie29 the postal votes are taken out of the envelopes and taken to the central count, not to the polling stations.

Postal votes can be taken to your own polling station on the day of the poll if you've left it too late to post and they will be put in a special "Postal votes delivered to Polling Station" envelope and counted.

There are umpteen envelopes and special bags to put things in at the end and the ballot paper account to have to add up and reconcile with papers issued etc; it should be easy but we are all knackered by then!😀

And if your signature doesn't quite match (rather than is a total forgery) the checker would get a second opinion from the supervisor before chucking it out. You wouldn't be informed as far as I know.

@BrioNotBiro thanks for answering these. It’s really interesting. It just got me thinking as we sorted my DS postal vote out yesterday that DH and I have been postal voting for years and I hope my signature still gets passed. I have arthritis and it’s probably not as good a signature as it once was. I do think they should get you to update your signature periodically, maybe every 10 years or so.

Oh and I do also miss going to the polling station on the day. I’ve been going with my DS but looks like we’ll all be postal voting from now on, so it’s interesting to know I could just take it to the polling station on the day. Thank you.

Count is over night. Have been asked to do it. Absolutely not after last time 😅

I had Richard Tice tell me that he was sure he would be the only person in the polling station that day voting for a party that they owned.

I will be doing the count.

It's humans not machines looking at the signatures (at least it was in my council) so we apply a bit of common sense. If it's a bit shaky but it's still basically the same shape it wouldn't be dismissed. It's totally different ones we were looking out for, so I'm sure yours will be Ok Geogieporgie.

Thought I might explain our process for postal votes in case anyone is interested . I also open these as part of the daily team in the ten days or so before election. I've done it in tedious detail as I know many are convinced that the system is open to fraud

Quite often we will have candidates or their agents observing us but they can only watch us work on the ward they are standing in

We sort into wards

Then open in batches of between 100 and 200

Open outer envelope and check that the voter number on the signed and dated statement matches the voter number on the sealed envelope containing the ballot paper

Check that the statement is signed and dated with date of birth and signature. Any unsigned or with the date of signing go to the top of the pile as will be rejected

Pile of 100 Statements handed to supervisor . They are scanned and verified as correct by computer . Any incorrect ones are highlighted as failed verification. Any signatures that are flagged as questionable get looked at by the human supervisor who looks for a certain number of matching points to the signature held on file

Statement returned to us and we then weed out the failed ones, batch with the ballot paper envelope and put to one side .

If it's failed verification the elector will be notified but not until after the election . You might be asked to submit a new signature and so people are allowed to have an exemption for no signature . Many of our 90+ electors in care homes don't have to sign

Then we open the envelopes contain the ballots . Making sure the ballot inside has the same voter number as the envelope on it . Ballots are kept face down at all times

Make sure that the number of ballots matches the number of envelopes we started with less the failed verification ones . Ballots then go into sealed ballot boxes separated by ward which are taken directly to count on election day

It's not as straightforward as it seems as there are multiple ways that the public can fail to follow the instructions

you might have a husband and wife accidently sign each others statements ,

put all ballot papers for the whole household into one envelope,

only return the ballot paper and not the statement . Or vice versa

Put the date of signing, not date of birth

Consider up to 3 different ballots per elector in a combined election and it can be quite stressful to keep the audit trail perfect

Presiding Officer checking in, mine is a church hall, I love it and am delighted to be back there so soon!

I love meeting so many people and how there's often a bit of excitement and interest around the whole thing, I think this one will be a big one.

I have counted a few times, but there's only so many times I can count to 10 and swap, a full re-count finished me off!

I’ve done the count and am expecting to be asked on 4th July.

There is a lot of hanging around because we do it so thoroughly and carefully.

First each ballot box is verified. This means ballot papers are sorted into batches of 25 or 50. Each batch is double counted.

If you match the number of ballot papers issued great, if not other people double check the batches. This double checking happens a third time before a discrepancy is accepted. The discrepancy is usually because a voter didn’t put their ballot paper in the ballot box.

Once all the ballot boxes for a ward are verified we then sort the ballot papers, including postal votes, by candidates and batches of 25 or 50. Spoilt ballot papers are separated out.

Again the batches are double checked. If you balance to the verified ballot count great. If not double recounting happens until you do balance.

The waiting around and recounting can make it a long day/night.

I'm at a lovely village hall with full control of effective heating and have a well equipped kitchen and cushioned chairs.
Lovely voters too so am spoilt.
There is a religious Church hall ( Mormon?) in our Area that forbids tea or coffee as its a stimulant - wouldn't work there for love nor money!!!
Another polling Station near me is in a 11th century Church now used as Community centre but it's very cold, heating often broken and ineffective even if working and no natural day light so wouldn't like that either!
Also need to make sure your colleagues are people you can happily spend 16 hours with without a break!
Anyway I'm looking forward to it as been working with same person for over 10 years and we get in like a house on fire.

Could you tell me more about the count please as thinking of swapping this time.

Do you sort the votes into groups and then count them?

Do you get breaks?

Barnet or Harrow?

@Sunshineandrainbow the count is really good, and much more exciting at a GE, you are put in pairs or a small group and at mine only have to count up to a very small number, I think it's 10. First you have to verify how many papers are in the box, then sort into who's voted for what, and then count them up. There's lots of counting, cross checking, checking again, and then maybe again! Lots of stop start while things are checked, you're waiting for the next box etc so you're definitely not 'on the go' all the time.

I'd say it's the exciting bit, and quite easy really (but very thorough) the part I was less keen on was you didn't have any idea how long you'd be there/how long it would go on. You could get 2 more boxes, you could get 20 so you didn't know if the end was in sight! Fun though, especially if you're in a tight constituency!

Thanks for replying @TokyoSushi thats made my mind up!

I have done the polling station before. This year I am working the evening before till 1am and won't sleep till 2am. Getting to the polling station at 5.30 and then a long shift seems unrealistic!

I work for my local council so just need to check if I can get the Friday off work!

Our PO had worked the count at the last GE and said the Tory candidate's representative had said they had to count as a vote for him a ballot paper where someone had drawn genitalia in the box against his name. This was upheld. She was pretty sure that wasn't what the voter had meant.

This time it will a large turn out, being a GE, but simple - one MP for each constituency.

It gets complicated when there are many candidates for positions and people can make, e.g 10 crosses against names, or only one, or any number in between.

Until very recently, when we counted these crosses up on long ballot papers we had to sellotape dozens of papers on to big flappy sheets of brown paper so crosses could be counted and ratified in both directions - a bit like rudimentary spreadsheets, lol. They were called 'grass skirts" and it was so low tech!

Things are a tiny bit more 21st century with plastic envelopes now, but there's still a lot on mental arithmetic of quickly adding up in your head. It's all cross checked so errors aren't made overall.

Oh it'll be lovely to administer, one paper, one cross, ppp it in the box, jobs a good 'un - brilliant!

That's equal parts hilarious and terrifying! I suppose if it was a mark in the box technically they would have to count it.:(

This is more common than many voters realise.