Bromsgrove District Council
PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION COUNT – 8 June 2017
INSTRUCTIONS FORVERIFICATION/COUNT SUPERVISORS
GENERAL
There is one Count Centre for the Parliamentary Election on Thursday 8 June 2017.
The Dolphin Centre
School Drive,
Bromsgrove
B60 1AY
Please dress smart casual.
On arrival you will be allocated a Counting Table and will be asked to sign a form to confirm your attendance authorise your payment.
Verification/Count Supervisors must be in the hall by no later than 9.30pm for a short briefing and to be ready to start at 10pm.
Verification Assistants and Counting Agents will sit on opposite sides of the counting tables on the instructions of the Acting Returning Officer.
No person other than the Acting Returning Officer and their staff shall handle the ballot papers – Counting Agents may not assist with the sorting or counting of ballot papers.
No marks shall be made by Verification Assistants on ballot papers.
Verification Assistants must not leave the hall, apart from toilet breaks, without the permission of the Acting Returning Officer or their Assistants.
VERIFICATION/COUNT ASSISTANTS
You will be responsible for a team of 4Verification Assistants on a numbered table. They will arrive at the Count Centre between9.45pm to 10pm. They should have already read “Instructions for Verification Assistants” on the staff website.
Make sure they sign in when they arrive and sign out at the end of the evening. Signing in forms must be put back in the folders at the end of the evening.
PROCEDURES AND OTHER DETAILS FORVERIFICATION/COUNT SUPERVISORS
A. VERIFICATION
You will have full details of the Ballot Boxes to be received, emptied and counted in respect of your table (the Verification Summary contains all these details).
Ballot Boxes/Ballot Paper Accounts
You will be given the ballot boxes and ballot paper accounts relating to your table. Record the amount on your verification summary sheet and Ballot Box Record Card then place the ballot paper account in the basket for collection. A runner will then take the Ballot Paper Account to the top table.
Equipment
Coloured slips of paper, thimbletts, trays, pencils, clips etc, will be provided and need to be made available at each Verification Table/Team. You will have a clear box for mixing ballot papers. There will be clear bags provided for holding ballot papers from a box if totals do not match.You will be provided with a separate table to layout trays to compile the results behind your team for you to work on.
Opened Ballot Boxes
Once a Ballot Box has been opened, and the papers tipped out, place the opened Ballot Box in the area behind your team removing the lid totally so that you can see if all papers have been removed. Make sure you show any agents/observers that the box is empty.
Verification (Please refer to Verification Assistant’s Instructions)
Please take particular care to ensure that the papers from one box cannot possibly be mixed up with papers from another at this stage. Proceed to verify i.e. Verification Assistants to count into bundles of 25FACE UPWARDS
and clip each bundle together. Any bundles of less than 25 should have a counting slip on top, indicating the number. Assistants should swop bundles and recount to check.
If the numbers agree, complete the ballot box record card and put up your hand for the runners to collect the card and take to the top table for sign off.
If the numbers do not agree, ask the Verification Assistants to re-count.
After this, if the numbers, still do not agree,check if there is another box from that location (this will be shown on the Verification Summary Form) – it may be that the missing/extra paper(s) relate to the other box.
Ask a runner to tell the top table that you are going to verify another box from the same location.Seal the first set of ballot papers in a clear bag and place on your table. Verify the other box to check if totals then match.
If ballot papers still do not match after this, call a runner and give them your figures on the ballot box record card. The CO or one of theirassistants will check that the Ballot Paper Account has been correctly filled in and that the SPOILT ballot papers have been deducted from the figure for the number of Ballot Papers issued. The CO may decide it necessary to check the unused ballot papers if there are two or more papers missing/over or to ask you to do a further final re-count.
Once signed off you can start the next box.
Verifiedpapers will go into the clear mixing box.
The empty boxes can then be stacked out of the way.
Postal Votes
Postal votes will be dealt with in the same manner as polling station ballot papers and will be mixed with polling station papers.
Completion
When you have had all boxes checked ask a runner to have the Verification Summary form signed by the top table.
Once all ballot papers have been verified the Acting Returning Officer willannounce the turnout.
Once all your boxes have been verified the Acting Returning Officer may allow you to start the Counting of papers before the final turnout is announced.
B. COUNT
- The Acting Returning Officer will let you know when you can commence the Count.
- No marks shall be made by Counting Assistants on ballot papers.
- The ballot papers must be kept face upwards at all times.
- Ask your team to remove the clips. Once these have been removed, your team can then start sorting these into the answers in the trays provided.You will know the number you are trying to balance to from the total on the Verification Summary Form.
- You will be given the names of the answers for the trays. It will be your responsibility to collate the ballot papers in to bundles of 25 in the same tray headers on a table behind your team.
- The Counting Assistants will count into bundles of 25 for each answer(FACE UP) and fasten the bundles with the paper clips and a count slip initialling it and passing to a second counter to check and initial. 4 x 25 are banded and put in the appropriate tray with a piece of card indicating one hundred ballot papers.The final bundles will be less than 25 mark the amount with a post-it note.
- Sort out any “doubtful votes” as detailed in the Counting Assistant Instructions. The (Deputy) Acting Returning Officer will decide on these. All “rejected” ballot papers must be stamped REJECTED and put in the envelope provided marked up for “rejected” ballot papers.
- Count the total number of papers for each answer along with those rejected, compare this with the total number of ballot papers on the Verification Summary (this provides a check to ensure that all papers have been sorted) and pass the information to the Acting Returning Officer via a runner.
- It is most important that Counting Assistants ensure that papers are properly sorted into candidates – this is the stage at which Counting Agents will be particularly interested in the proceedings. Always flick through the bundles to ensure there are no rogue ballot papers in the bundle.
- Once the (Deputy) Acting Returning Officer has ruled on the doubtful votes and discussed matters with the Agents, if no recount is called the Acting Returning Officer will announce the local result.
- Once your mini count totals have been agreed counted ballot papers can go back into the mixing box. Rejected ballot papers need to go into the envelope provided and then put on top of the counted papers. The box should then be sealed with the label provided.
- The Acting Returning Officer will let you know when you and your Counting Assistants can leave. Make sure you all sign out.
RESULTS
A copy of theResult is displayed at the Count Venue for the public to see.
OTHER
In your briefing to staff, remind them to turn any mobiles off. Remind them the key for a successful count is “accuracy above speed”.
Once the result has been declared you can remove all the paper clips and put them tidy in the stationery boxes.
Finally, assist the Acting Returning Officer with display of notices, and general tidying of the count hall.
Darren Whitney
Deputy Acting Returning Officer
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