Count Observers

[Cattenberg]

I mean the political candidates and their agents who watch the count staff carry out their work and try to count alongside us.

To be fair to them, they do spot the odd mistake, such as a count assistant putting a ballot on the wrong pile, although such mistakes would usually be spotted at the next stage of counting anyway.

However, they are also quite annoying. They sit/stand too close and try to count alongside us - can’t they just wait a few more hours for the result? Many also try to chat to us, which is distracting. I feel they shouldn’t be allowed to stand within arms’ length of the ballots - one year, a candidate was hovering over our table joking about stuffing his rival’s votes up his jumper.

Does anyone know the rules regarding their participation? At the last election I counted for, these people were greeted by the Presiding Officer and thanked for coming, which surprised me, as I didn’t think they were required (or particularly wanted).

No one? Could this flock of neck-craning albatrosses be unique to our local leisure centre?

It is absolutely crucial that the count is done openly in full view. It is a public count. The point of agents seeing the count is that they know if the declared result is not consistent with what they have seen, and can ask for a recount. This is why it is illegal to hide or cover the papers, or count too fast for them, or in any way obscure the papers so they are unable to count with you.

They are not allowed to touch the papers, but they can watch as closely as they like. They can be asked not to speak to you, but in practice, some conversation is fairly normal, and more often is initiated by the counters than the agents. I guess it is unnatural to be so close and not speak to each other, or at least smile at each other and thank each other.

Also, on the other hand, if any questions are raised about surprise results, the counting agents are able to offer reassurances that the result was consistent with what they themselves recorded during the count.

Both situations happen regularly

Thank you for explaining, Candidate X. Thinking about it some more, I feel that if we need people observing that closely, they ought to be independent, not the candidates and their agents. I don’t think the candidate who joked about stuffing ballots up his jumper actually did so, but the point is, he could have done, as we had our eyes down counting for most of the time and couldn’t watch what he was doing.

There are independent observers, and independent counters and independent officials. This is important. And every single party and candidate also has a clear view of exactly what is happening, this is true too.

It sounds like that candidate was being a bit of a prat, but no, he could not have got away with touching the ballot papers. If a single one is misplaced the count is invalid, I am sure you know that.

I do think you’re correct about that, although I’m never sure how the minor verification errors are resolved. If our tally of the ballot papers within a box differs from the polling station’s, we just have to count the ballot papers a couple more times. If we get the same result each time, then our count seems to be the one accepted.

Do you know if the Presiding Officer actually requires a certain number of observers? There were noticeably fewer than usual during the count for the recent PCC elections.