Voting: what you need to know

Ok, it’s Election Day. For some of you, it will be your first time of doing it. Now, I’m in a position to give a bit of an inside track on what happens, which might a)reduce any anxieties and b)convince you it’s worth it and c) show you that It Cannot Be Rigged and that your vote counts. So:

Voting

Hopefully you registered to vote, if you didn’t, spend tomorrow slapping yourself in the face, because dammit, you had the chance and screwed it up. You’ll need to go to your polling station – the one in your polling card. You can’t go to another. You have to go to that one. So, when you go along, you’ll go in and two people will be sat there. You just need to give your name and address to them, which will be checked on the register.

You don’t need ID, and you don’t need your polling card. Assuming all is well, you’ll be given a ballot paper and told to go into one of the polling booths. All you have to do is put a cross [x] in a box. You can make any kind of clear mark, but, for the avoidance of doubt just cross. There’s a pencil provided. Just use it. It’s there because they’re reliable, make a mark, and don’t run out/burst/blob/leak. If it bugs you that much, use a pen you have brought with you. When counting, nobody cares. Oh, and don’t for the love of God, sign your name, make an identifying mark or anything like that or it won’t be counted.

Then, fold it in two, and pop it in a ballot box. Someone will likely help you – at my polling station, they shove it in with a ruler. 
Nobody should bug you, try and canvass you, or really, try and disturb you. It’s against the law to campaign in or near the polling station. Sometimes, local agents may stand nearby and try and ask you when leaving who you voted for. Ignore them. Nobody has the right to know who you voted for but you. 

There’s lots of stupid questions about polling rights and wrongs and they’ve been answered pretty comprehensively here

The polling station will be open until 10:00pm, and if you’re in the line at that time you’ll be allowed to vote. But don’t leave it that late….

Postal votes 

These should already have arrived and be stored safely. If you live nearby and have forgotten to send it, you can take it to your polling station.

I’m ill and can’t make it

Contact your electoral services department. You can organise an official proxy voter for you until 5:00pm.

10:00pm

Right: for the most of you, sit down, pop the BBC on and watch the night unfold. There’ll be an exit poll at 10:00pm. This is an estimation based on asking a select number of voters to indicate secretly to a polling company and the University of Glasgow who they voted for. It’s supposed to give a reasonable indicator of what will happen but they can be wrong (in 1992 they predicted a hung parliament which became a Tory majority)

Counting the votes 

This is where I’ll come in. From 10:00pm, the ballot boxes will be sealed. Methods vary but trust me, they are sealed tight. They are then transported under escort to a designated location – this could be a town hall, a sports centre, or any where big enough. Hundreds of staff will be waiting to count the votes – me included. Now, the process will vary, I would assume, but for us, the first to arrive will likely be the postal votes, which during the day will have been opened and put in a ballot box. The boxes from polling station could take a while to arrive so this is a good chance to get the postal ones done. 

It’s not a case of just counting the votes for each candidate. First, we’ll verify them. This means we need to check that the right number of ballots cast (based on the numbers of ballots issued) matches up. This can take quite a while – in fact, it’s the longest part of the night and explains why, in the majority of places, you don’t get a final result until the early hours, even if verification started at 10:00pm on the dot. The count of votes itself can’t proceed until the numbers are right. Incidentally, as the person doing the verification you don’t know what number you should be getting – you just get told if the number you have is right or wrong by a senior person. 

Verification can be done twice by different teams to make sure that the count is correct. 

The ballots cast at polling stations will then arrive and the same procedure will take place. Only then will the actual counting of votes start – this will typically be well after midnight. The count itself is a pretty quick process – into piles for each candidate and again, the number must match the number cast. Any variance and hey ho, it’s a recount. Only now, as staff, do you begin to see how things are shaping up and this, really, is the exciting bit – though you’re only seeing a small snapshot from the polling station you’re counting.

This is the point that ‘bad and doubtful’ votes are examined. So, ones that have a cross on more than one box, a mark outside of a box, a message written on, a little cartoon drawn or anything like that. These are pored over by candidates and agents and argued over if they think a vote has a definite mark for them (or not). This is really a very small number of votes but every single one may end up counting for something in a tight race. And really, any mark in a box will probably do but for the sake of a few seconds, just draw a damn x, yeah?

Once everything is verified, counted and verified again, the result is announced. However, if it’s a close race, it may be that the candidates ask for a recount, which is the same process again. 

Can this be hacked?

In all honesty, I fail to see how this could be done on a scale to do any significant damage and so many checks and controls are in place it’s very difficult to the point of being almost impossible, at least in terms of the counting and verification. This is all done at top speed overnight and heck, like anyone has time to rub any pencil marks out etc. There’s such a huge number of randomly selected people and recounting by an equally random selection of people. What I’m saying is, the simple system of many bits of paper and many independently scrutinised people produces a fair and transparent result. 

It’s also worth pointing out that the count is also viewed by a huge number of independent persons: the presiding officer, the media, the candidates, the candidates’ agents and representatives of the local parties who act as scruntineeers. These people stand directly opposite the count staff to ensure no funny business goes on, though they can’t distract the staff in any way. When the count is in progress, if they think a ballot has gone on the wrong pile they will attract the attention of the senior staff and point it out. 

Also, during verification, they’ll be keeping an eye on the number of votes to estimate turnout and try to get a sense of if it looks good or bad for their candidate. In the days of social media, this is why you might get rumours quite early on of something big doing down in constituency x or y, for example. 

Does my vote count?

Oh my, yes it does. If you live in a marginal constituency it counts a lot – one local election earlier this month came down to the drawing of straws as it was a tie. Ed Balls lost Morley and Outwood in 2015 by a few hundred votes. Byron Davies in the Gower holds the seat by just twenty seven votes. The First Past the Post system we use means a winner can be declared by a single vote. 

And, if you live in a safe seat -Theresa May has a majority of 29,000 in Maidenhead – then your vote counts too. Even a reduction in a majority can really affect the future of a seat, and an MP with a smaller majority has to work a lot harder to keep their seat and needs to really reflect the views of their constituents. So, even in these cases, you can end up with a harder working representative and you set the scene for the next election too. 

Conclusion

Elections matter, and here we have (to me) a really awesome system that makes sure your vote counts, that it’s counted and verified fairly and that a result is done by the time the sun comes up. All I can say beyond that is – use your vote. Many people died for you to have it, and one moment of your time in a polling booth can help change the direction of a nation.

See you after the sunrise….