Northumberland Election 2008 Video

Your guide to the election - THE ROLE OF THE RETURNING OFFICER

by Paddy Gascoigne from Blyth Valley Council (Deputy Returning Officer for Northumberland)

The role of the Returning Officer is to organise the elections, get the nominations in from the candidates and then run the elections which ultimately lead to the Count. It is after the Counting of the votes that the Returning Officer declares the election results.

A candidate can stand in the local government elections by obtaining a nomination paper from the Returning Officer.  They need to complete this and get the signatures from 10 electors in their ward.  They then return the nomination papers to Deputy/ Returning Officers and we check through the paper to ensure it is correct.

If a candidate wishes to stand for a political party, they first of all must go through a selection process by that party so that they become the candidate for that political party.  They must state the party on their nomination paper which also goes on the ballot paper.

Once the nominations have been handed in, the candidate can go out and canvass support in their ward.  This may entail them talking to the press, but often it involves them going around houses dropping leaflets and canvassing support by knocking on the doors of people’s houses and asking if they will vote for them.