Elections expert to assess Telford & Wrekin Council balloting processes
A council is set to work with an expert to see if they can ‘tweak’ their election process after the latest local elections in May.
Mark Heath, returning officer for Southampton, will be speaking to Telford & Wrekin councillors and staff members.
During the Telford & Wrekin Council elections in May there were 153,802 ballot papers which were counted at 1.69 minutes per candidate.
This was in comparison to 2.21 minutes per candidate in Dudley and 2.82 minutes per candidate in Stoke.
Telford & Wrekin returning officer David Sidaway said that the main objective was that the secrecy of the vote was maintained ‘at all times’ and that accuracy was paramount.
“Once we have declared a result at the count then it’s final and can’t be changed,” Mr Sidaway said. “Even if it is wrong.”
He said that the council’s elections team had the equivalent of 3.8 full-time members of staff and support from other areas across the council.
Anthea Lowe, director of policy and governance, said that having each election box verified before moving onto the count was ‘quite an undertaking’.
She said that this was due to different ballots taking place at the same time and some papers being placed in the wrong polling box.
Mrs Lowe said that prior to the May council elections they delivered 12 hours of face-to-face training for 344 staff and held two mock election counts.
She said that staff who have the required skills are often council staff or former council employees and they also receive help from neighbouring authorities.
The council also have security staff to support the transportation of the election boxes. She said that planning for an election count goes right down to how many pens and paper clips will be required.
Mrs Lowe added that there were different counting methods for single- and multiple-member wards, the latter of which take longer.
She added that the time to count can be impacted by things like the size and thickness of the ballot papers.
If the temperature of the counting venue is too hot that can also impact on the speed of getting a result.
Recent improvements to increase the speed of election counts include compiling a ‘real-time’ spreadsheet to help with clarification.
Improvements to the box check-in process and allocating boxes to counting tables in advance have also helped the process.
Telford & Wrekin councillors received the update at their communities scrutiny committee meeting.
Councillors gave their own feedback from the May local elections and asked if breaks for the counters could be staggered in future to avoid periods of inactivity.
Mr Sidaway added: “That’s a frustration I share, that there is too much downtime at certain parts.
“It’s associated with the declaration. My frustration is that there is not enough activity (at that time). We can improve on that.”
Councillor Elise Davies, committee chair, said her previous ‘frustration’ was that she felt the count could be done quicker. However, she added that the presentation was an ‘eye-opener’ for her and that they ‘wanted to get it right’.
“It’s really exciting to have Mark Heath working with us to give us his thoughts and anything we can tweak,” added Councillor Davies.
