Tell us what UK polling workers do?
May 2, 2010 1:32 AM Subscribe
UK election filter -- what does "manning a polling station" entail?
Mr Mutant & I are politically active, but to date our involvement has been pamphleteering & canvassing.
We're working with different parties in different wards across Tower Hamlets, and have been asked by two parties to help out at the polling station come May 6th.
We're looking for first person knowledge of what this task entails in the UK. Ideally someone who has actually carried out this task and details please! For example, is this partisan i.e., wearing identifying information from a party? Any other details will be welcome
I don't know what this entails in the Netherlands (I'm Dutch), and while Mr Mutant (who was politically active in New York) has some knowledge of precisely what this involves in The United States, we're foxed how this translates in the UK experience.
Mr Mutant & I are politically active, but to date our involvement has been pamphleteering & canvassing.
We're working with different parties in different wards across Tower Hamlets, and have been asked by two parties to help out at the polling station come May 6th.
We're looking for first person knowledge of what this task entails in the UK. Ideally someone who has actually carried out this task and details please! For example, is this partisan i.e., wearing identifying information from a party? Any other details will be welcome
I don't know what this entails in the Netherlands (I'm Dutch), and while Mr Mutant (who was politically active in New York) has some knowledge of precisely what this involves in The United States, we're foxed how this translates in the UK experience.
I've only been a teller once for a couple of hours, but the information on this page seems accurate to me.
I wore a party rosette but this page indicates that this may not be a legal requirement. It was a fairly quiet time and I was the only teller there so I don't have any experience of the sharing of information referenced in the first link. I got plenty of terse, grumpy responses when asking people for their poll card numbers as you would expect but nothing worse than that.
posted by tomcooke at 2:22 AM on May 2, 2010
I wore a party rosette but this page indicates that this may not be a legal requirement. It was a fairly quiet time and I was the only teller there so I don't have any experience of the sharing of information referenced in the first link. I got plenty of terse, grumpy responses when asking people for their poll card numbers as you would expect but nothing worse than that.
posted by tomcooke at 2:22 AM on May 2, 2010
I am a little surprised that you would be asked to do this, especially with your wife, if you have particular political allegiances, but maybe I am being alittle niave about how this usually works - I had assumed it would be local council workers or similar.
Three volunteers from the three political parties, all manning the same table, is supposed to provide security.
The same is applied to transporting the sealed boxes to the counting centre, and counting them; that if people from all the major political parties keep an eye on the box, and on the counting process, widespread fraud would be detectable.
I understand the theory is also that if you want volunteers enthusiastic enough about politics to want to man a voting station all day/count vote papers all day, it's easier to get them from the local political parties than anywhere else.
posted by Mike1024 at 3:02 AM on May 2, 2010
Three volunteers from the three political parties, all manning the same table, is supposed to provide security.
The same is applied to transporting the sealed boxes to the counting centre, and counting them; that if people from all the major political parties keep an eye on the box, and on the counting process, widespread fraud would be detectable.
I understand the theory is also that if you want volunteers enthusiastic enough about politics to want to man a voting station all day/count vote papers all day, it's easier to get them from the local political parties than anywhere else.
posted by Mike1024 at 3:02 AM on May 2, 2010
Best answer: There is no way you will have been asked to man a polling station for the council - i.e. help run the actual election. Political parties do not organise this - and councils are very careful to be scrupulously neutral (even Tower Hamnets!)
You will have been asked to help with telling. Telling is sitting outside a polling station, asking people for their polling number when they come out having voted. It's not an exit poll, so you don't ask how they voted, you just want their polling number, or name and address to know that they have voted.
The aim of doing this is to allow that voter to be crossed off the list of potential voters by your party so that they aren't pestered by people later in the day asking them to go to vote, hence focusing resources on those still to vote. It also gives an indication, when coupled with canvassing information on individual voter intention as to how the election is going and where resources need to be moved across a constituency.
There's usually a teller for each of the main parties, and it's common to wear a coloured rosette (although you can't have one saying vote for X, or indeed lobby people at all as to how to vote). When I've done it its always been fairly relaxed, with each parties tellers giving each other numbers they've missed etc, although that's not universally the case... It's much more fun on a nice day than when its raining...
Feel free to mefi mail me if you need more!
posted by prentiz at 4:01 AM on May 2, 2010
You will have been asked to help with telling. Telling is sitting outside a polling station, asking people for their polling number when they come out having voted. It's not an exit poll, so you don't ask how they voted, you just want their polling number, or name and address to know that they have voted.
The aim of doing this is to allow that voter to be crossed off the list of potential voters by your party so that they aren't pestered by people later in the day asking them to go to vote, hence focusing resources on those still to vote. It also gives an indication, when coupled with canvassing information on individual voter intention as to how the election is going and where resources need to be moved across a constituency.
There's usually a teller for each of the main parties, and it's common to wear a coloured rosette (although you can't have one saying vote for X, or indeed lobby people at all as to how to vote). When I've done it its always been fairly relaxed, with each parties tellers giving each other numbers they've missed etc, although that's not universally the case... It's much more fun on a nice day than when its raining...
Feel free to mefi mail me if you need more!
posted by prentiz at 4:01 AM on May 2, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for the answers thus far. This really is the first time I'm really following an election this close. Furthermore I never seen tellers outside the polling station in NL nor that I ever been canvassed there.
posted by Mrs Mutant at 4:41 AM on May 2, 2010
posted by Mrs Mutant at 4:41 AM on May 2, 2010
What prentiz said. You'll be outside asking for numbers, from time to time another party helper will come and collect your pad and take it off to the committee room for the people whose numbers you've collected to be crossed off the list for "knocking up" in the evening. Not every polling station has them, or has a full complement of them - it depends how many volunteers the party has and how important that polling station is to them.
I wouldn't worry, it's simple stuff, I used to do it for my parents in my teens, and the neighbours' kids used to race around all the polling stations on their bikes picking up the papers. IIRC, John O'Farrell's book, Things Can Only Get Better, describes the whole thing very entertainingly, although, like my experience, his pre-dates the use of computers for keeping track of voters, so its probably all rather different now. The one line that sticks with me for its accuracy is "The most exciting thing about elections is the sheer amount of stationery involved." So true!
posted by penguin pie at 12:33 PM on May 2, 2010
I wouldn't worry, it's simple stuff, I used to do it for my parents in my teens, and the neighbours' kids used to race around all the polling stations on their bikes picking up the papers. IIRC, John O'Farrell's book, Things Can Only Get Better, describes the whole thing very entertainingly, although, like my experience, his pre-dates the use of computers for keeping track of voters, so its probably all rather different now. The one line that sticks with me for its accuracy is "The most exciting thing about elections is the sheer amount of stationery involved." So true!
posted by penguin pie at 12:33 PM on May 2, 2010
Response by poster: Wow. This is really totally new to me. Again thank you for the responses. My first UK elections. First time political activist and we now got requests from three political parties to help them out. We asked one of the local council candidates and it is indeed the teller job and we are supposed to ask and write down what people voted. We are not members of any of the political parties. Mr Mutant for some reason seems to attract politicians like flies.
posted by Mrs Mutant at 2:48 PM on May 2, 2010
posted by Mrs Mutant at 2:48 PM on May 2, 2010
Best answer: You're mostly asking, on behalf of a party, if a voter wouldn't mind telling you who they are and possibly how they voted after they come out of the polling station.
In most places (but not always) the parties on the ground will happily share this with each other because nobody's asking everyone who comes by.
The purpose is to get an idea of how things are going during the day and to find out if "your people" are showing up to vote or not, possibly with an eye to getting canvassers out to specific areas (and not to others) in the afternoon to maximize polling-day GOTV efforts. A lot of people will refuse, politely or otherwise, to tell you anything.
Don't let anyone persuade you that canvassing outside a polling station is OK. You're so close to the actual ballot boxes that canvassing people on their way in is an offence under the Representation of the People Acts -- I reported someone from Respect in West Ham in 2005 for leafleting arrivals, and the police officer at the polling station went out to tell her to pack it in as soon as I was out of earshot after leaving.
posted by genghis at 7:49 PM on May 2, 2010
In most places (but not always) the parties on the ground will happily share this with each other because nobody's asking everyone who comes by.
The purpose is to get an idea of how things are going during the day and to find out if "your people" are showing up to vote or not, possibly with an eye to getting canvassers out to specific areas (and not to others) in the afternoon to maximize polling-day GOTV efforts. A lot of people will refuse, politely or otherwise, to tell you anything.
Don't let anyone persuade you that canvassing outside a polling station is OK. You're so close to the actual ballot boxes that canvassing people on their way in is an offence under the Representation of the People Acts -- I reported someone from Respect in West Ham in 2005 for leafleting arrivals, and the police officer at the polling station went out to tell her to pack it in as soon as I was out of earshot after leaving.
posted by genghis at 7:49 PM on May 2, 2010
Response by poster: Sounds like we should refrain from any political activity on Thursday, election day. It is going to be close between Labour and Respect here and I'm sure they will try every trick in the book.
posted by Mrs Mutant at 6:16 AM on May 3, 2010
posted by Mrs Mutant at 6:16 AM on May 3, 2010
Response by poster: When I turned up at the polling station there were at least 12 people outside trying some last minute leafleting and canvassing. Some people had called the police to report voter intimidation. Further down the road it was also difficult to get past another polling station without getting harassed while I clearly was not going into the polling station. Nobody asked what I voted... I guess they do things a bit differently in the East End.
posted by Mrs Mutant at 5:06 PM on May 8, 2010
posted by Mrs Mutant at 5:06 PM on May 8, 2010
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posted by biffa at 2:22 AM on May 2, 2010