Referendum on the voting system for UK Parliamentary elections, 5 May 2011
April 2011
Translations and other formats
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Tel: 020 7271 0500
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We are an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. Our aim is integrity and public confidence in the democratic process. We regulate party and election finance and set standards for well-run elections.
Contents
1 / Purpose / 1
2 / Preparation / 3
3 / Setup and testing of communication systems / 7
4 / Verification of ballot paper accounts / 9
5 / Counting local totals / 13
6 / Certification and declaration of local count totals / 18
Appendices
Appendix A Template count totals certificate / 21
Appendix B Template declaration notice / 23
1Purpose
1.1The purpose of this protocol is to guide Counting Officers and electoral administrators through the process of communicating information about the verification and counting of votes to Regional Counting Officersfor the referendum on the voting system for UK Parliamentary elections, to be held on 5 May 2011.
1.2This protocol is aimed at ensuring a consistent and transparent approach to the communication of information about the verification and counting of votes, and to ensure an accurate result for the UK as a whole.
1.3Because the result for the UK as a whole is built up from each local count total, it is essential to ensure every local total is accurate and robustly verified – any error in the data for one local voting area may not affect just that area, it could have an impact on the result of the entire referendum.
Overview
1.4The Chief Counting Officer for the referendum, Jenny Watson, has directed that the verification of votes must be completed by 1pm on Friday 6 May 2011, and that the counting of votes must commence at 4pm on 6 May. The Chief Counting Officer has appointed Max Caller CBE, an Electoral Commissioner, as the Deputy Chief Counting Officer, with specific responsibility for overseeing the management of the referendum verification, count and result process.
1.5Verification and count totals from 439 local Counting Officers across Great Britain will be submitted to 11 Regional Counting Officers, using the Electoral Commission’s Results Collation System. Regional Counting Officers will be responsible for assuring the accuracy of the information provided by Counting Officers, and for managing the process of directing the certification and authorising the local declaration of local count totals.
1.6Once they have been certified by the Regional Counting Officer, local count totals can be declared and published locally and will also be updated to the Deputy Chief Counting Officer at the referendum result venue in London using the Results Collation System.Information about certified local count totals will be uploaded to the Commission’s referendum result website.
1.7Once all of the local count totals within each region have been certified, the Regional Counting Officer will submit the total for the region as a whole to the Deputy Chief Counting Officer. The Chief Counting Officer will direct the certification and authorise the declaration and publication of the regional count totals by Regional Counting Officers.
1.8The Chief Electoral Officer will be the Counting Officer for the whole of Northern Ireland, and will submit the verification and count totals for Northern Ireland directly to the Deputy Chief Counting Officer.
1.9Once all 11 Regional Counting Officers and the Chief Electoral Officer have submitted certified count totals to the Deputy Chief Counting Officer, the Chief Counting Officer will certify and declare the result of the referendum at the referendum result venue in London.
How to use this protocol
1.10As a Counting Officer you should ensure that you, and any staff who will be supporting you, have read this protocol before finalising your plans for carrying out the verification and count for the referendum. You should read this in conjunction with the Chief Counting Officer’s instructions on the count and verification,which are available on the Electoral Commission’s website at:
1.11You should also ensure that the relevant staff have accessed and viewed the e-learning tool[1] for the Results Collation Systemwhich is available on the Electoral Commission’s website at:
1.12Each of the following chapters in this protocol includes a checklist setting out the key communication steps in each stage of the count and verification process. These checklists can be used by Counting Officers or their staff to make sure that the key steps have been completed.
2Preparation
Time: no later than 21 April 2011
Contact details
2.1Before 5 May, the Regional Counting Officer will ask you to provide the email address, contact telephone number and fax number that you will be using at your verification and count venue on 5 and 6 May.No later than two weeks before polling day you must ensure that you have provided phone contact details which will allow the Regional Counting Officer to contact you personally during the verification and count process.
Eligible electorate
2.2After 14 April, the Regional Counting Officer will ask you to provide figures for the eligible referendum electorate for your voting area.
Equipment and set-up
2.3You must ensure that all equipment that you will use at your count venue is tested in advance of the verification and count, including:
- public announcement systems
- telephone lines
- general IT equipment, including hardware and internet connections
- power supply for electrical equipment
- fax machine
2.4You must ensure that sufficient time is allocated for setting up. You should prepare a checklist of all materials, including stationery and equipmentthat will be needed at the verification and count venue.
System Requirements for Results Collation System
Operating System / Microsoft Windows 2000, XP or Vista (not compatible with the Apple Mac or Linux)Spreadsheets / Microsoft Excel version 2000, 2002, 2003 or 2007
2.5The system requirements for Counting Officers to use the Results Collation System are set out above. If you are not able to meet these requirements, you must inform the Regional Counting Officer.
2.6You must ensure that emails with MS Excel attachments are not blocked by your IT department.
2.7You must ensure that there is no other reason why emails are blocked, such as because your inbox is full.
2.8You must ensure that an appropriate internet connection and access to email is present at the site where you plan to send and receive the emails.
2.9You must ensure that you have access to logon during the whole of the verification and count.
2.10You must have MS Excel installed.The system has been tested with the versions listed above. Later versions should also work as the system uses the standard XLS file format.
2.11You must have in place a standard email system not GCSX secure email.
Back-up and contingency arrangements
2.12The Chief Counting Officer has directed[2] that you must have contingency arrangements in place in case of an equipment or power failure. There could be an equipment or power failure at any time in your local count centre or at the regional collation venue.
2.13Your contingency arrangements should include the use of:
- mobile phones
- laptops with 3G connection if possible
- fax machine
- hard copies of forms you need to complete (available on the Electoral Commission website)
2.14Manual backup procedures are essential. You should have copies of all the forms you will be required to complete printed out in advance so that in the event of equipment or power failure the forms can be completed by hand.
2.15During the collation of results, you should print off hard copies of material you send to the Regional Counting Officer electronically, and keep hard copy records of results data. These will be needed in the event of failure of electronic systems.
2.16You should ensure that your contingency arrangements enable you to continue to follow the procedures in this protocol manually, that is using phones and fax, if there is a failure of electronic systems.
2.17In the event that you experience equipment or power failure locally, you must notify the Regional Counting Officer by telephone as quickly as possible. Use the telephone number that will be provided by the Regional Counting Officer.
2.18In the event that there is equipment or power failure in the regional collation venue, the Regional Counting Officer will notify you by telephone as quickly as possible on the telephone number that you have provided.
Information and announcements at the count centre
2.19You should ensure that you have prepared appropriate information to explain theprocessesyou are going to follow during the verification and count to any referendum agents, counting agents and observers who are present. You should include the following information:
- Set out the key roles of those who will be conducting the count. At a minimum you should explain your role as Counting Officer and identify, where appropriate, the count management staff and counting assistants.
- An explanation of the relationship between the count in your local voting area, the Regional Counting Officer and the Chief Counting Officer, and that each local count total feeds into the result of the referendum for the UK as a whole.
- An explanation of the key stages of the count process;
- The verification of ballot paper accounts
- Counting of votes
- Communication of information with the Regional Counting Officer and Chief Counting Officer
- Certification and declaration of local count totals
- An explanation that certified local count totals will also be published by the Chief Counting Officer on the Electoral Commission’s website.
- An explanation that the final result of the referendum will be certified and announced by the Chief Counting Officer at the referendum result venue in London.
Preparation checklist
Action/step / Complete
CO provides count centre email, phone and fax contact details to RCO /
COprovides eligible electorate data to RCO /
COsets up communication equipment at verification and count venue /
CO provides back-up and contingency communication equipment /
CO tests equipment at verification and count venue /
3Setup and testing of communication systems
Time: no later than 9pm Thursday 5 May 2011
3.1Even if you have tested your all communications equipment at the count venue prior to 5 May, you must make sure that it is working on the day. Before commencing verification, you must test all the communication systems in your count venue that you will use to communicate with the Regional Counting Officer on 5 and 6 May, that is:
- Telephone lines, including mobile phones
- Laptops and emails
- Fax machine
3.2The Regional Counting Officer will test email communications with you before you commence verification, by sending a ‘Contact and electorate information collection’ email. You must check the electorate information included in the spreadsheet and either confirm or update the figure to take account of any clerical errors corrected up to and including on polling day, by:
- Opening the ‘Contact and electorate information’ collection email sent from the Regional Counting Officer via the Results Collation System and selecting ‘Forward’ – do not select ‘Reply’
- Opening the spreadsheet contained in the email.
- Checking the figure in the ‘Electorate’ cell of the spreadsheet and making any necessary change
- Saving and closing the spreadsheet
- Entering the Regional Counting Officer’s contact email address in the ‘To’ field of the email and selecting ‘Send’
3.3If you are commencing verification immediately after close of polls at 10pm on Thursday 5 May, you should respond to this email between 9 pm and 10pm on 5 May. If you are commencing verification in the morning of Friday 6 May, you should respond to this email between 8am and 9 am on 6 May.
3.4The Regional Counting Officerwill also test email communications with you again between 3pm and 4 pm on 6 May, before counting commences, by sending a test email to which you should reply to confirm that your email system is working properly.
Setup and testing checklist
Action/step / Complete
If commencing verification immediately after close of poll
COsets up and tests communication equipment at verification and count venue by 9pm on Thursday 5 May 2011 /
If commencing verification immediately after close of poll
CO receives and checks/updates electorate data contained in‘Contact and electorate information’ collection email sent by RCO between 9pm and 10pm on Thursday 5 May 2011 /
If commencing verification on Friday 6 May
CO sets up and tests communication equipment at verification and count venue by 9am on Friday 6 May 2011 /
If commencing verification on Friday 6 May
CO receives and checks/updates electorate data contained in ‘Contact and electorate information’ collection email sent by RCO between 8am and 9am Friday 6 May 2011 /
CO receives and responds to pre-count email communications test initiated by RCO between 3pm and 4pm on Friday 6 May 2011 /
4Verification of ballot paper accounts
Time: between10pmThursday 5 May 2011 and1pm Friday 6 May 2011
4.1The Chief Counting Officer has directed that you must complete the verification of votes by 1pm on Friday 6 May. Youmust follow the key verification stages set out by the Chief Counting Officer in Section 5 of her instructions to Counting Officers on verification and the count.[3]
4.2The Regional Counting Officer will send a ‘Verification figures’ request email to you after 10pm on 5 May 2011, using the Results Collation System. The email will contain a verification spreadsheet that you must complete and return to the Regional Counting Officer.
Informing the Regional Counting Officer about verification discrepancies
The Chief Counting Officer has set out in Section 5 of her instructions to Counting Officers on verification and the count the following procedure which you must undertake and document if a ballot paper account does not reconcile. You must:
a. Make a full check of the arithmetic on the ballot paper account. You must also check the other packets of returned materials and any polling station logbook to try to identify any reason for missing or additional ballot papers. Ensure that returned postal ballots have not been added to the number of votes cast in the polling station. You should consider contacting the Presiding Officer to ask them to try to explain any discrepancies.
b. Check the record of issued ballot boxes to see if more than one ballot box was issued to the polling station and ensure that all boxes allocated to the station are opened and accounted for.
c. Check whether the ballot box has come from a multiple polling station location and, if it has, complete the verification of the ballot paper account(s) for the other polling station(s) within that location to see if there is a compensating error. If the poll has been combined with another poll and where separate ballot boxes have been used for each poll, check the ballot boxes for each poll for all polling stations within the same polling place. The verification of these ballot paper accounts may indicate a compensating error due to electors placing their ballot paper in the ‘wrong’ box or a box from the wrong polling station.
d. If the ballot box is from a single polling station and separate ballot boxes have been used for each poll, check the ballot box(es) for the other poll(s) for a compensating error.
e. If the ballot box is from a single polling station and only one ballot box has been used, or if the ballot box is from a multiple polling station location but there is no compensating error in the figures from the other polling station(s) in that polling place, recount the ballot papers in the box at least twice or until the same figure is achieved on two consecutive occasions.
f. If, after following the procedures outlined above any discrepancy still remains, you must use the figure of the number of ballot papers counted and recounted by the count staff as the verified figure and make an appropriate note on the ballot paper account.
g. The verified total and the variance between that and the number on the ballot paper account must be added to the statement as to the result of the verification, if possible with an explanation of why that variance has occurred, and should be discussed with any agents and observers present.
Before you complete and sign a statement of the result of the verification,you must ensure that you have informed the Regional Counting Officer if you have identified a variance for any ballot boxbetween the number of ballot papers contained in the ballot box and the number recorded on the ballot paper account as having been issued.
You should send an email or fax to the Regional Counting Officer setting out for each ballot box where a variance remains:
- The size of the variance (the number of ballot papers more or less than expected)remaining after you have taken steps to resolve the variance.
- The reasons for the variance if known.
- Confirmation that you have carried out all of the steps set out above needed to resolve the variance.
If there are no variances for any ballot box in the voting area, you do not need to inform the Regional Counting Officer.