Is anyone else here working at a Polling Station on Thursday?

[Stinkyfeet]

If so, what are you doing and more importantly, what food are you taking?!

I bet the smell of that is Hell for the polling station staff!

(SF - You've rumbled me lol)

A chippy next door? Sound fab.
Are you allowed to make a brew (if there's a kettle of course)?

Ahhh

Yes, you can make a brew. Hopefully your Presiding Officer will make sure there's a kettle!

I am doing something...no idea what. My local councillor asked if I wanted to help out at our polling station on the night ??? She said it was 2 hour shifts but didn't say what I would be doing Luckily it is next to my house so I can get a hot cup of tea cos the barn is bloody freezing.

A Teller possibly, ben.

When I did the count a few years back it was at the Town Hall, not the poling stations.

Dh is a journalist on the local paper so has to go and hang about at the count until the results come through. He gets very bored and tired. As our local count is in a village hall in the middle of nowhere he has no idea what is going on nationally so I stay up and ring or text him with the gossip.

I'm not but DH is a Presiding Officer (for a station in North London, when we live in South London, so, with travelling, a very long day for him)

He takes crap. He'll take tea/coffee/biscuits for all the clerks, and then a bag of sausage rolls and pot noodles for himself. He's fighting off scurvy by the time he gets home Money's worth it though!

i think we got paid £90 for the day in the station and then £60ish if you did the count i think. I always find it really bizarre that more people (staff in the council) did not apply to do it. Whilst is can be pretty boring, it is good money on top of your normal salary. I shall be going to the polling station tomorrow and will take great pleasure in asking them 'Has it been busy then?'....it will probably only be the fiftieth time they've been asked!

ben = telling outside the polling station = asking people nicely for their voter numbers as they come out (they don't have to give them to you) so the parties know that someone's voted, and not to knock on the doors

Etiquette is that if they give their number to only one party's teller, that one shares it with the other tellers.

sorry, knock on their doors

Thanks! I am looking forward to being there and will probably sit up watching the results...for a while.

Just hope I don't mess things up

Slow cooker is a bad idea, you will torture yourself all day long with the smell of your delicious casserole/ curry/ whole side of beef cooking away....and then just eat tons more crap to compensate.

ben if you are telling they should give you instructions. you'll probably be asking people for their polling number, writing that down and perhaps doing a tally for won't says.

if you have a good bunch of people the tellers from the different parties will share polling numbers with each other, cos it can get really hectic when everyone comes at once.

remember not to obstruct the entrance and try and not look too intimidating

Presiding Officer here !
In our area only the poll clerks have been offered the count. I'm not that bothered really, was involved in a re-count many moons ago and I was knackered at the end of it.

Food....I am really going to try and not take enough food for a week.

I always look forward to it
x

my weather forecast just in case you need it. I think its a thermos flask day myself.

Oh, I would LOVE to do this, my Grandad used to do it. DP was at the count in 1997, the lucky sod. I was 12. He was some form of Labour hanger-on. Bet it was brilliant.

That's a point, are party members allowed to count, or do we just get to glare at the other parties?

I'm so glad that food is the priority at Polling Stations up and down the country!!

We call it "the Fear" ... the fear of running out of food!

I have now bought my supplies. Started out well with tea, coffee and milk. multigrain subrolls, pre-cut fruit (), salad bits, bottles of water, cupasoup ... then descended into mayhem with the Haribo, multipack of crisps, chocolate muffins, cookies, savoury eggs and mini cornish pasties. Oh and a couple of sundae type desserts.

Still, it's a long day!

Thanks for the weather report, Kitten, will wrap up warm in the Polling Station - the heating's never on!

I bet the precut fruit and salad bits don't get eaten.
in fact, I would just main line the haribo alternated with strong black coffee!

Not this year - did it last time round and hated it...lol...maybe next time though...I did the count last time round and bits and bobs leading up - i.e. opening envelopes and scanning them to see if all okay - this year the LA I work for has a scanning machine...ooooo
Anyhows this year I will be looking after the office whilst all but 3 others of my colleagues will be on election duties...

My neighbour (retired) always does it. I was asking her about it earlier this week. I assumed there would be two boxes for local and national elections - apparently not! Different-coloured ballot slips go in the same one.

we have different boxes, but people still manage to get confused .

I'm working at the count tomorrow, counting the votes. A re-count would be good as we get paid by the hour