Stage 1 Receipt of Ballot Boxes, Ballot Paper Accounts, Postal Votes and related material, including the Verification of Unused Ballot Papers
1.1 Ballot Boxes containing Postal Votes that have been processed will be conveyed in to the Count Centre at 9.45 pm and checked in to the Verified Votes Table. Votes will have been verified and batched by the Postal Votes Team into bundles of up to 500. The Accountant's Team should receive a verification control card for each batch that was verified by the Postal Votes Team to enter on their verification statement. The Verified Votes Team will remove the batches from the ballot box(es) and place them in blue trays containing up to 500 votes each. At the counting of votes stage, these votes will be mixed and counted with other batches of votes from the polling stations.
1.2 Ballot Box(es) and Blue Storage Box(es) arriving at the Count.
The ballot box supervisor and his/her team are responsible for registering receipt of every ballot box. A ballot box registration document is completed to record that all ballot boxes and sundries have been received.
The following documents are receipted by the Box Reception Team: -
(i) Ballot Box with the following three envelopes attached to the lid of the ballot box in a clear wallet: -
- Ballot Paper Account
- Postal Votes Envelope - to be retained at Box Reception and stored in a clear box labelled for Postal Votes and collected by the Postal Votes Runner to convey to the Council Offices for processing
- Marked Copy of Register of Electors Envelope - to be retained at Box Reception and stored in a clear box labelled accordingly
(ii) Blue Storage Box (to be opened and checked for unused ballot papers in the black labelled sack)
1.3 After all election sundries specified above have been receipted, a runner will take the Ballot Box to the Ballot Box Reception Supervisor at the area displayed "Ballot Boxes waiting to be verified" and another runner will be waiting to take the Ballot Paper Account to the Accountants Table.
1.4 The Blue Storage Box will be taken by a runner to the Verify Unused Ballot Papers Team (unused ballot papers will be opened at this section and the number of unused papers received will be written on the unused control sheet and verified).
Stage 2 Verification Process
2.1 Accountants open Ballot Paper Account and enter figures from ballot paper account into the verification statement.
2.2 Accountant issues Verification Control Card to Team Supervisor. This control card clearly identifies the unique number of the ballot box to be collected from the area "Ballot Boxes waiting to be verified".
2.3 Team Supervisor collects ballot box from Ballot Box waiting to be verified Supervisor and passes to one of their teams of 3 counting assistants.
Each Team Supervisor has been assigned two teams.
2.4 Each team will open the Ballot Box and empty papers onto the table.
The Counters shall then unfold the papers and count them into bundles of 50, face up. When all votes have been counted, the counting team will fill in the number of votes on the verification control card and their Supervisor will take the control card along to the Accountants Table for checking. The team will remain in charge of the box and ballot papers until the checking process has been completed.
2.5 If the Accountants Table agrees that the figures are the same as on their verification statement Ballot Paper Account, they will tick the box on the verification control card and hand it back to the supervisor.
2.6 If the figures do not agree, the contents of the box will be re-counted.
If the figures continue to disagree, a Depute Returning Officer will be consulted to resolve the issue. This may require the checking of the result of the verification of ballot paper account(s) from other polling station(s) within that location to see if there is a compensating error. Additionally, the unused and spoilt ballot papers contained in the polling station's blue box will be checked to see if there has been an arithmetic error.
2.7 The Supervisor will then ask their team to bundle the votes and place them in one of the blue storage trays provided. The verification control card should be placed on top of the blue tray and handed over to the Verified Votes Table.
2.8 The Verified Votes Supervisor will record the blue tray coming in on the "Verified Votes In Control Sheet". On this control sheet the Verified Votes Table will record:
- the ballot box number verified;
- from whom the tray has been received;
- that the control card has been authorised by the Accountants; and
- the number of votes received.
2.9 The Verified Votes Supervisor will label the blue tray with the relevant ballot box number and store in numerical order. The Verification Control card must be removed from the tray and retained at the Verified Votes check in point.
2.10 The Team Supervisor will request that a box runner removes the empty ballot box by raising their hand and then proceeds to verify another box unless otherwise notified by the (Depute) Returning Officer to proceed to the next stage.
2.11 Once all of the ballot boxes, including the postal vote boxes, which includes those delivered to polling stations during the day, have been counted, the verification statement is completed identifying the number
of ballot papers that will go through to the next stage of the count.
2.12 The Statement as to the Result of the Verification will be completed and signed and an announcement made regarding the total votes cast and the turn out. Copies will be made available to Election Agents.
Stage 3 Mixing of the Votes
3.1 At the conclusion of the verification stage, the Verified Votes Table Supervisor distributes the verified votes to the Team Supervisors for the next stage of counting the votes. When allocating bundles to the team supervisors, the Verified Votes Team must ensure that the bundles represent a mix from more than one ballot box to satisfy the `mixing regulation' which requires that ballot papers from one ballot box must be mixed with ballot papers from at least one other box and also in the case of postal votes which must be mixed with at least one other box.
3.2 The Team Supervisor will proceed to the "Verified Votes Out Section".
From the Verified Votes Table they will be issued with two or three blue trays labelled with the appropriate ballot box numbers for each team along with a count control card. Before issuing the control card, the Verified Votes Table will record on the count control card the box numbers issued to each supervisor and their team number.
3.3 To control this process at the Verified Votes Table, a record will also be kept by the Verified Votes Table detailing the ballot box numbers issued to which team. A separate list will be kept with all the ballot boxes numbers pre-printed on and the Verified Votes Table will score off all the boxes being dispatched for counting along with the team supervisors' initials.
This second record will show the outstanding boxes still to be counted.
Stage 4 Counting of Votes
4.1 The Team Supervisor will supply their team with 2 or 3 blue trays and a Count Control card. The counting assistants will proceed to mix and sort their ballot papers by candidate face up, placing aside `for adjudication' any papers where the voter's intention is doubtful or unclear. Trays for each candidate have been placed on their table plus a further tray `for adjudication' for any doubtful ballot papers.
4.2 As the candidate papers are counted into bundles of 50 and banded together using the elastic bands provided, a coloured `header' card should be placed on the top of each bundle (party colours used for the main party candidates and a different colour scheme for other candidates). Bundles less than 50 will have a slip highlighted PART with the number of votes needed to be recorded on the slip and attached.
All bundles will be checked by another counter at the table.
4.3 Doubtful papers will be dealt with by the supervisor or referred to the (Depute) Returning Officer, if necessary, by placing in one of the blue trays with a label written "doubtful votes".
4.4 Once all of the allocated ballot papers have been counted, the totals for each candidate including doubtful votes are then entered by each team onto their count control card. Control Cards will then be given to the Team Supervisor who will proceed to the Accountants Table for checking that the votes counted are accurate on the Accountants Counted Votes Control spreadsheet.
4.5 If figures match, the accountant will sign off the control sheet and the team supervisor will go back to their team and bundle batches into one of the blue trays with the sticky label removed. Any votes for adjudicating must be put in a separate blue tray and labelled "doubtful". Both trays are then brought to the Counted Votes Table.
4.6 If the figures DO NOT match, the votes will be recounted.
Stage 5 Counted Votes Table
5.1 The Counted Votes Supervisor will check that the count control card has been signed off by the accountant and accept all the counted votes which have to be bundled into 500's for each candidate. Parts will be passed to two other members of the Counted Votes Team who will make them up to bundles of 50. They should also flick through each bundle to ensure that they only include ballot papers for the correct candidate.
5.2 Tables will have been provided for storing each candidate's votes in trays of 500. The votes should be stored to enable a count to be made of them which will then be cross checked with the spreadsheet being updated at the Accountant's table.
Stage 6 Adjudicating Votes
6.1 Votes awaiting adjudication will be stored separately in batches of 50 at the Counted Votes Table. As required the Counted Votes Supervisor will release a bundle of 50 (or less) votes, with an Adjudication form to the (Depute) Returning Officer. This will take place at different stages during the count and will be announced in advance for candidates and election agents only.
6.2 As each batch of doubtful ballot papers is adjudicated at the Doubtful Votes Table, the form for doubtful votes is completed to provide a record of the (Depute) Returning Officer's decisions. This form is then passed to the accountancy officer for input to the Accountant's Counted Votes control sheet.
6.3 When adjudication for all of the doubtful votes has been completed, the (Depute) Returning Officer must seal up the rejected ballot papers in envelopes marked according to the rejection categories. Those ballot papers adjudicated to be good and identified are added to the candidate totals but are retained on the RO table in trays that have been marked up for each candidate by name. These ballot papers should remain on the table until the conclusion of the count and should not be re-adjudicated as part of any recount.
Stage 7 Aggregation of provisional results, consultation and
re-counts
7.1 After each counting team has completed counting for each candidate, the accounting officers enter the totals from the count control card onto the counted votes control sheet, together with the outcome of the adjudications of doubtful ballot papers.
7.2 The count summary statement along with all of the other completed forms provides the (Depute) Returning Officer with a complete audit trail of the conduct of the count. Any discrepancies should have been identified within the team counting structure and rectified as part of the count process.
7.3 If the result is extremely close, or there is the possibility that one or more of the candidates may be in danger of losing their deposit, there may be pressure for the (Depute) Returning Officer to recount the votes. If the (Depute) Returning Officer considers the request reasonable, a recount will need to be conducted. The deposit is returned to the candidates who receive more than 5% of the total number of votes cast.
Recounting the votes
- Before proceeding to recount the votes, the (Depute) Returning Officer should inform all candidates and agents and others present about the intention to move to a recount.
- Under no circumstances should the ballot papers rejected during
the initial count be included in the recount. Any ballot papers adjudicated as good in the initial count should not be re-adjudicated as part of any recount.
- The original count forms should be placed in a folder and a new set of count forms, headed `1st recount', should be provided for completion.
- At the conclusion of the recount, the (Depute) Returning Officer will be in a position to compare the count statement from the original count with that of the recount before proceeding to consult the candidates and agents on the provisional result.
Stage 8 Declaration of Results
8.1 The accountancy officer will prepare the announcement of the results for the Returning Officer using the figures from the count summary statement, and will also include the total number of rejected votes by category as identified in the team adjudication forms.
8.2 The formal declaration of result for publication immediately following the announcement should also be completed at the same time and made available for distribution to the candidates, agents and other stakeholders.