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've only ever seen them on the way in. Once you post your ballot and walk out through the exit, there's never anything there except the road to home.

Do you not think that a very large part of the problem might be their timing?

How many MPs regularly canvas their constituents for their opinions on any kind of political matters - or even ask for their honest opinions and feedback as to how well or badly they believe they're representing them - throughout the four or five years between elections?

Whatever people's political views, I think MPs would garner an enormous amount of local respect if they did actually show genuine interest in and concern for those whom they're representing when there are no votes to be had any time soon.

My Labour MP is very available to constituents. However I’m not interested in defending mps in general or the Labour Party. I delivered leaflets and had a poster up but didn’t vote this time. #GC #Torylossmorethanlabourwin

Don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to be pissed off at a local tory who became a successful candidate the next time round sat blocking the doorway, ostensibly telling, but also asking before you went in how you would be voting.

First time I'd ever encountered it - these days I'm in an area where nobody bothers showing up except for voters.

I was a Teller yesterday and had some really good responses and some awful ones, we were only counting numbers to know if our supporters turned up and if not give them a nudge, it’s nothing sinister as people suspect, purely to eliminate who’s turned up to vote, nothing else! I won’t be doing it again however as peiple don’t understand how innocent it it and get really aggressive about it. 😬

Nobody is suggesting that it's 'sinister'. They just don't want to be hassled by somebody asking to see their name and address and voter number, acting in a way that many people would assume they are electoral officials, as a necessary/helpful part of the voting process.

Surely you must be aware that people will say anything to get rid of an annoying person knocking on their door and canvasing at an inconvenient moment; and if they are genuinely supporters, it seems astonishing that they would not bother to turn up to actually make their support count, or get in touch if they need a lift, as you've doubtless told them when identifying them as your supporters that you will gladly arrange?

But even if we assume that everybody on your list genuinely IS a strong supporter of your party, I get that you want to know if they've turned up - but that isn't our problem, and many of us don't want to give up our personal data to you just because you can't find a better way of communicating with your supporters.

Do you say "Would you mind if I checked your polling card to see if you're on our list of supporters? It's entirely optional; I'm not an electoral official at all" - and if you don't, why ever don't you?

I actually asked if they minded giving me their polling card code number and said it’s just so we know who’s turned up or not and I did say not to worry, it’s not mandatory, it was fine if they didn’t want to! It’s a funny thing as you say, I’m not sure of the point of it, I was supporting my local candidate but we couldn’t get all the numbers anyway, so really a pointless task. I also would at want to be called upon to vote if I hadn’t at that point, it’s entirely up to the person if they vote or not. I guess is one party has a teller the others think they ought to aswell and it goes on

Each polling station has two poll clerks at a desk, who find you on the roll, check your ID and issue a ballot paper. In addition, they have a presiding officer, who supervises and deals with any issues that may crop up (e.g. I never signed up for a postal vote and I never received it either). The person warning voters about the teller was most likely a presiding officer. Managing queues and dealing with tellers is in the JD for them and issuing ballot papers requires no more than 2 people, so no one was being kept from their work by the teller 😊 - I am speaking as a poll clerk BTW, not a teller!

In that case, you have my full respect.

An awful lot of tellers will just say "Can I see your polling card?", which will be interpreted by very many people - especially young/first-time voters - as "I am an official steward and I NEED to see your card" - they are the ones whom I find devious and dishonest.

Thanks - fair enough; although I still don't see why actual official representatives of candidates/parties should be deliberately creating work for the officials, whom you would expect to be primarily there to assist/control the general public.

Yes I agree that’s terrible! I’m the bubbly friendly type of person that laughed with people and said It was absolutely fine not a worry, and I explained to everyone it was just a thing they like to do. I must admit, I had been on the other end of a teller before and thought it rude to ask me.. I now understand what it’s for but still, you need to explain and not be rude and pushy when you are asking for someone’s code, I didn’t ask for names and addresses either, that’s a bit much isn’t it. I can totally understand why people don’t want to do it, just thought I’d reassure people it wasn’t for anything other than these reasons 😊

Where I used to live there were these people literally blocking the door into the polling station. What annoyed me was that they posed as officials (no party rosettes). so they would ask voters going in to see their polling card and ask for their name. Most people going in complied because they thought they were election officials. They were in fact local tories. I complained to the local electoral office because they were misrepresenting themselves, but I moved soon after so don't know if they still do it.

I have never ever had a teller say anything to me other than "Can I see your polling card?",

and as PP says which will be interpreted by very many people - especially young/first-time voters - as "I am an official steward and I NEED to see your card" - they are the ones whom I find devious and dishonest.

I have never in my life attending local or general elections had a teller make clear what they are doing or that they are affiliated with a party and want to check whether supporters have voted.

This is over years and across 5 different constituencies

This happened to me .I was quite happy to give my polling card number. No questions about who I was voting for. Just to stop any canvassing later yesterday. Not sure what the problem is TBH !

Sounds fair enough to me... but isn't your name and address printed on the card - so they'd easily be able to see that too if they wanted to look?

In fact, this might be a stretch, but in theory, somebody could pose as a teller and then, when they see two adults with cards showing the same address, message their mate to dash around there and see what easy pickings you may have to nick.

I was a teller yesterday - first time I’ve done it and as I’ve never lived in a marginal seat before I’ve never even encountered one.

I was given some printed guidance and a short training video to watch but it’s fairly basic, and I imagine there’s quite a variation in how people approach the task- while most of the local party activists are very nice you always get the odd one and there’s no-one checking on you - anyone could sign-up online to do it.

I get the concern about looking official and people assuming that you have to give you information. Though I found that people want to get on with their day, not have a lengthy explanation.

My approach ended up being to say something like “would you mind if I took your polling card number?” then while they were getting it out I’d say “it’s just so we know who has voted, it’ll save you from having us knocking on you door later”. I had big fat rosette on so I thought it was fairly clear I was representing a political party. Most people were entirely relaxed about giving it to me, anyone who looked at all wary I was explained it was entirely up to them, and that we knock on doors to encourage people to come out to vote. In general the people who refused didn’t look like they supported my party, rather than having an issue with giving their details.

Interestingly people were very willing to give me their polling card numbers, but if they didn’t have their polling card we had to ask for name and address which people were much more suspicious about - though I don’t think I had anyone who refused to give me it once they understood the purpose. I don’t think people fully appreciated that their polling card number is just as identifying as their name and address.

Wow that’s a whole other thing isn’t it, you have only a split second to actually get people to read out the number to you, like a 4 digit code, wouldn’t have time for a whole name and address, too many people you’re trying to capture before they leave but yes I guess there could have been dishonest ones out there but the tellers are on shifts and we would notice if there was 2 of us for each party at one location, well, you’d hope! I hope there wasn’t any wrong doing anywhere.

But you've said it yourself: you complied because otherwise they might hassle you by canvasing you.

Where's your own agency in your preferred voting experience? Do you get a say in it at all?!

It just strikes me that absolutely anybody could potentially pitch up in a smart suit and stand outside the polling station, asking to see people's cards - for any reason at all, be it nosey, over-enthusiastic or criminal. It's so extremely open to abuse.

Then, people who don't know what a teller is will assume that they are electoral officials enabling the voting process; and people who do know what tellers are will just assume that they have permission to be there and ask voters for their personal details.

Exactly the same situation for me as a teller. I didn't ask anyone who didn't have their polling card in their hand already, I think it's quite an awkward job really! I did 60 in an hour 7am-8am so hopefully saved quite a few knocks off the later rounds.

I don't like canvassing but I do enjoy getting the vote out. Where I live we canvass the whole constituency throughout the year on a rota basis so people are used to seeing members out and about and at events etc. we get good results and are really visible so people don't seem to mind it so much over election time

They do contact people before! Then on the day they follow up - if they have gathered good data they will have an idea of who might need help getting to the polling station, who wasn’t that committed to voting and might need a nudge.

As someone who always votes it always amazes me how many people are just not that fussed about it, but they be persuaded if someone actually engages with them. Given how low turnout is there’s lots of scope to win elections by convincing uncommitted voters to vote!

I was interested in the discussion by @cangar and @Shortfatsuit - about GDPR as I was also slightly uneasy about it. I don’t think people often have any idea that when they have a doorstep chat with a canvasser that this information about you political allegiance is then stored by the party, potentially for years, and is then accessible to any number of party volunteers.

As far as I can gather political parties fall under a special section of the Act and don’t need to rely on consent - whereas if a charity or other organisation was doing the same thing they would need to have consent.

It all seems strangely casual in contrast to the hoops you’d need to jump through to do same kind of data gathering if you you weren’t a political party.

Ah that's interesting. It was a church hall with an enclosed porch and they were inside the porch so obviously pushing their luck.

You are mostly meant to sit outside, but if it's raining or blowing a howling gale sometimes the Presiding Officer take pity on you and lets you sit inside, like in the porch. But you aren't allowed in the room/hall where the vote is taking place.

The presiding officer asked for my name but whether or not the party I was telling for had actually passed on my name in advance, or whether or not he was just making conversation I’m not sure.

I’m not sure what nefarious use you could put people’s polling card numbers to though, really. Obviously it’s personal data that should be appropriately managed but unless you’re a political party (who are legally entitled to ask for it) I don’t know who else could really gain much from it.