So those people sitting outside the Polling station...

[ciderhouserules]

What are they doing? There was one today (festooned in Yellow rosettes and ribbons) who asked me for my Polling card. I asked why and he said 'just to record that you've turned up'. I just walked away.

The fact that I've voted is recorded by the Polling clerk inside the Polling station, who crosses off my Name and Polling number on the list.

So what do the people sitting outside record from me?

I did actually complain about a teller a few years ago who was hassling me and swore at me when I refused to hand over my info. Labour Party I’m afraid. At least the Tories are polite!

In a sense, it's a similar principle to when people deliberately don't carry/use expensive things in public - things that they would have found useful to have with them - as they know that other people will only seek to take them from them.

I realise this is information that they're after and not goods they want to deprive you of, but I see a clear parallel in principle.

I haven’t seen a teller for years. I have done that job, and run The office where all the numbers are crossed checked with the canvassing lists. Happy days. General elections can be very excited for activists!

I have only lived in staunch Tory seats for the last 20+ years and only ever saw Tory tellers. I’d very cheerfully tell them I wouldn’t vote for them with a gun to my head and we’d all have an exchange of banter and off I’d go.

Thanks to all the Mumsnetters who posted on this thread! I had never heard of this before, and with my ingrained fear of authority, I would have surely complied. Because of Mumsnet, I was able to ask the gentleman requesting my polling card if he was a teller, and when he confirmed, politely say, “I believe I’m not obliged to show you.”

I have done a session telling today, and have being doing so for the past 8 years or so. We do wear a rosette, we are entitled to ask, and the voters are perfectly entitled to say no, and that is the end of it. We aren't allowed in the polling station either. Inside the polling station I can only speak for my own authority but they do wear badges saying what sort of official they are - either a poll clerk or the presiding officer (the one in charge of the polling station.)
We used to happily share the info with the Tory tellers but they seem to have given up this year.

we are entitled to ask, and the voters are perfectly entitled to say no, and that is the end of it.

How do you ensure that they know that they can say No?

I say 'you don't have to if you'd prefer not to'

There were three tellers from three different parties outside my polling station today. All working together which I thought was nice! I was happy to give them my number. They only want to know who has voted, they don't ask who you are voting for.

I've just been tricked by a Lib Dem "teller". No rosette on, lanyard round his neck and looking for all intents and purposes like an official.

Apparently I'm not the only one who was tricked into giving my details. The officials went back out and asked him to put his rosette back on but I do wonder how many others were tricked.

I'm pretty cross about it.

There was a Tory teller at my polling station today. Also Lib Dem and labour. But it's not clear who's going to win here. Probably LD or labour but the predictions all say something different as there has been a boundary change and of course the tories are expected to lose a lot of seats. Very novel after living in a Tory safe seat for many years!

I've just been tricked by a Lib Dem "teller". No rosette on, lanyard round his neck and looking for all intents and purposes like an official.

In which case, go in, complain and the teller will get a bollocking. It's not been unknown for the Returning Officer to come round to tell people off for overstepping the mark.

The tellers are not supposed to approach voters on their way in to the polling station, only on their way out.

I agree; they often pass themselves off as part of the process when they are no such thing. Much as there is a blanket ban on the media reporting on campaign issues, opinion polls, political statements and candidates after voting starts at 7 a.m until the polls close, I think there should also be a ban campaigning activity at the same time, including tellers crowding polling station doors.

At my small polling station this evening there were 4 of them, pretty close to the door and asking to see my voting card. As I was just dropping off my postal vote I had nothing of use to them, but stopped to tell them that to waste their time. There were people behind me queuing though, as they thought they had to show the card to get past them!! And that’s in a well educated middle class southern market town/city where people should know better and the tellers should be better behaved. They should be banned.

They do!
I’ve done it. It’s a thankless task and you get loads of complaints about too much and not enough canvassing and leaflets.

We had a teller and a bloke pulled over in his car and started shouting at us aggressively saying they weren’t allowed to do it.

He irritated me so I told them my address and number. It doesn’t bother me tbh

I get significantly more annoyed about all the opinion polls that we get in the run up to the election. I also got annoyed with the BBC - when Farage decided to stand, you would have thought that he was the only candidate in the election, by the amount of publicity he got.

It's probably been pointed out before, but the political parties all get access to the marked register, which shows which people voted in a polling station. So the information the tellers gather would be available to them in a few months anyway. The reason they want it today is to avoid knocking on the doors of people who've already voted.

They are now allowed to ask people if they have their ID with them.

I think that’s blurred a line with them as they weren’t supposed to approach on the way in.

DS2 (it’s come up as I asked MIL if she’d ever seen tellers here) said they should wear tabards, like the press have to do in the F1 pit lane, so it’s obvious who they are and what they do.

i wouldn’t object to that.

I had a nice chat with a labour teller outside our polling station but only because his sister used to babysit our DD 15 years ago.

Here's the EC info on tellers.

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/guidance-candidates-and-agents-uk-parliamentary-elections-great-britain/polling-day/who-can-support-you-polling-day/tellers

Tellers must
• always remain outside the polling station
• only enter the polling station to cast their own vote, to vote as a proxy or to
accompany a disabled voter
• always comply with the instructions of the Returning Officer and Presiding
Officer

Tellers must not
• be able to see or hear what is happening inside the polling station
• impede, obstruct or intimidate voters on their way in or out of the polling station
• demand any information relating to a voter’s elector number, name or address
• ask to see or check a voter’s photographic ID
• ask voters to re-enter the polling station to ascertain their elector number
• have discussions with voters that may give rise to allegations of undue
influence (e.g. voting intentions, party affiliations or party campaigns)
• display any campaign material in support of or against any particular political
party or candidate other than a rosette or badge

Tellers may
• approach voters for information in accordance with instructions from the
Returning Office and Presiding Officer
• display a coloured rosette or badge displaying the name of the candidate, party
and/or emblem or description; the rosette/badge should not bear a slogan and
must not be oversized
• remind electors as they approach the polling station that they need to provide
photographic ID

We've just had bloody Labour people round knocking on doors - the whole street, so not targeted, asking who we've voted for "so we can gauge how well we've done"! Gone 9pm and they're ringing doorbells - those of us with young kids are delighted... 🙄

(and I mean, they could just wait an hour and the exit polls would be out which will give them a much better indication..)

Thanks, fair enough - I do respect you for that.

That's disgraceful.

To be honest, I don't even think a blank, coloured rosette is nearly enough of a clear indication that they represent a party and are not part of the team of electoral officials. They're quite old-fashioned things; plus people wear colours and 'flags' for all manner of things these days.