Employment at elections - Postal Votes Assistant

The purpose of a Postal Vote Assistant is to sort, and process returned postal votes in preparation for the main election count.

The roles of Postal Vote Assistants are undertaken in a pressurized environment and the greatest of care must be taken to ensure that mistakes are not made. They will work closely with a team of Postal Vote Supervisors throughout the process.

You will be paid as per the scale of fees for the Poll.

As a Postal Vote Assistant, you will:

• Comply with any instructions given to you
• Act impartially at all times and respect confidentiality of material handled
• Maintain the secrecy of the process
• Process the daily delivery or returned postal ballot packs.

Before election day Postal Vote Managers are required to

• Complete the online training or attend a briefing session

Postal Vote Assistants will work for approximately 8 hours on any given day. The working hours per day will be dictated by the level of postal vote return. You will be required to provide your own refreshments and take appropriate breaks throughout the day to avoid tiredness. Postal voting staff are permitted to leave the premises during these hours.

Postal Vote Assistants are not permitted to have carried out duties on behalf of any political party or candidate at the election. All staff will be required to sign their agreement to this and to maintain the secrecy of the poll.

Essential

• Ability to work independently under pressure
• Ability to work well with others / part of a team
• Literate and numerate
• Good timekeeping
• Ability to treat people fairly and with respect at all times
• Ability to remain politically neutral
• Not connected to, nor will assist, any candidate or party at the election
• Compliance with requirement for secrecy and instructions regarding the use of social media
• Acceptance of waiving the Working Time Directive for the period of employment

Desirable

• Previous work at election processes
• Previous customer-service experience
• Working knowledge of the electoral process