Council Elections 2018 Part One - Polling Day

Comprehensive planning will have been undertaken, checks and rechecks of the law, paperwork and systems. Capacity and resilience planning and all contingencies will be in hand, but there is still much to be mindful of.

A few basics:

• council elections are a legal process
• the Representation of the People Act 1983 (RPA 1983) is the governing piece of legislation
• the conduct rules which set out what must be done, and in what timeframe within the process, are set out in the Local Elections (Principal Areas) (England and Wales) Rules 2006 (SI 2006/3304) (the Rules)

Polling

In relation to polling stations, decisions will have already been made as to their location and published. If there is any last-minute change, however minor, advise the candidates and agents, and publicise widely, erect notices on any old venue or changed entrance, even if the change is minor. You cannot over communicate.

The layout of the station must be convenient to the voter. The representatives of the Returning Officer who visit polling stations should have on their checklist a requirement to assess the layout from the voter’s perspective.

The equipment to be provided as a minimum to each Polling Station is prescribed by Rule 26. Note the requirement as to notices both inside and outside the Polling Station and the need to ensure the correct 'Vote for One Candidate etc' notice in each polling booth within each station. Those who have recently held by-elections need to be watchful that old notices are not mistakenly reused.

The voting procedure is again laid out in the Rules (Rule 35) and explained further in the Electoral Commission’s Polling Station Handbook. Where prescribed questions have to be asked (because there is, for example, a suspicion of personation), these are also laid out in the Rule 33 and the Polling Station Handbook.

The day to day operation of the station is vested with the Presiding Officer, including keeping order (Rule 31). Note that Rule 42 allows a Presiding Officer to abandon a poll in the case of riot or open violence, but this should not be exercised by a Presiding Officer without the Returning Officer’s direct involvement.

Do not underestimate the value or impact of the Returning Officer personally visiting a polling station to deal with a query or problem, whether raised by election staff or an agent.

Most Returning Officers also appoint a number of experienced staff to tour round all the stations during the day to check them, collect any postal votes handed in at the stations and pick up any other issues. It is sensible that the Returning Officer keeps in very close liaison with them (they are his/her eyes and ears on the ground) and this is particularly helpful in the larger rural districts.

Tellers are a frequent source of grief for the unwary. They have no official status within the campaign, nor do they feature in electoral law at any point. The Electoral Commission produce useful guidance for tellers and a do’s and don'ts guide for tellers. This also addresses the similarly vexed question of what can (and cannot) be on rosettes worn by campaigners at Polling Stations.

Following the general election in 2010, the law changed so that those in a queue at a polling station at 10:00 can receive a ballot paper (or hand their postal vote in) (Rule 35). The Returning Officer will have a plan for managing this but should be aware of any developing patterns over the day. Are there queues, in which case is there an issue that requires revisiting and revising plans made earlier? Or is it the operation at those stations? If capacity allows, some extra staff working later in the day prior to close of poll that can be deployed to stations with queues can be helpful (geography permitting, as this tends to be easier in urban areas where distances between stations is smaller).

A key document is the ballot paper account, and its accuracy is critical to a successful count. Make sure those inspecting stations check with Presiding Officers that they know what to do with this ready for 10:00PM.

To find out more about the upcoming Council Elections, see the second installment of this two-part series.

For more information please contact Mark Heath in our Public Sector Law team on 0117 314 5637.