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!

My count was a nightmare. I felt rough already when I arrived, but then there was a 2 hour delay in the boxes arriving due to unexpected traffic! They then came in dribs and drabs until about 2 am so we didn't even start sorting and then counting until after 3. Finally allowed to leave just after 6. I am only just getting over it now!

@SaltBlossom thats horrible. It’s the waiting that drains you as you just want to get on with it.

I was lucky, at 10pm we started verifying the postal votes and by 11pm all the boxes had arrived. We were all verified by 1 and declared just after 3. I was counting and sorting most of that time so it went quite quickly.

@Harassedevictee that's it, it was so draining.

I'm jealous, we started verifying postal votes at 10pm and didn't declare til 6.30am, everyone was saying it was the longest count they'd ever been involved in. The lady next to me had worked every GE since 1997.

@Whatthetrolley that is a very long time.

I did my first count. Really enjoyed it and would definitely do it again. We had postal votes to verify at 10pm then a bit of a wait until the boxes arrived. We had to do a recount as the votes didn't match the expected numbers. But then we were solidly counting and recounting until about 3.30am. Then a wait to be announced. We left just before 5am.

@usernotfound0000 what did you mean the votes didn’t match the expenses numbers? Did they end up being right before the recount or afterwards?

The first count is to verify each box has the right number of voting papers.

Once a polling station closes they work out how many voting papers they have issued and note it on the box and paperwork. At the count the sealed box is opened and the votes are unfolded and sorted into 50s. Each batch of 50 is double counted, If the number of votes counted doesn’t match the number of votes issued. You have to count twice more unless you balance.

Once all the boxes have been verified you then sort into votes for candidates etc.

A lot of people don’t realise how controlled and carefully the count is done.

Sympathies @SaltBlossom I have done the count before and found it way harder working during the night than during the day, hence moving over to work as a Poll Clerk instead.

This sounds like something I would be interested in for the future- how do you get involved?

@Whatthetrolley
The 2 constituencies near us both declared much much later than usual- normally both around 3am mark but one was 7am and one 8am this time. No idea why they took so long!

If you're in a double or triple, there is every chance people might put them in the wrong box. Also if you have more than one ballot paper (like we do during county and parish) no matter how hard you try someone will always put it in the wrong box.

My box was out on Thursday because someone put it in the other stations box. But I was told about it by my poll clerk so when I dropped my box off I told them, that the other box would be up one.

@Cuwins your district council should have an elections team. Just email them and volunteer.

Yep exactly as others have said. The numbers from the polling station didn't match what we counted so had to recount. Same happened later on too where the tally of votes for each party didn't match the number of votes that we had previously verified - lots of recounting!