Northumberland Election 2008 Video

Your guide to the election - COUNTING THE VOTES

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

The counting of the votes normally take place immediately after the polling stations have closed.  This year, however, it will be done in the morning of the next day to ensure that all the counting of votes in the county takes place at the same time.

Counts take place in Leisure Centres or large school halls.  This is to ensure that there is plenty of space, firstly for the count itself and secondly so that the candidates, guests and agents can watch what is happening.  It is important that candidates and their agents can attend to see that it is fair and transparent.  Indeed the candidate is allowed to attend with certain people by law, they can attend with their partner, their agent as well as with a counting agent.  The counting agent sits in front of one of the counting teams to see the votes being counted and can query some of the votes if they are spoilt votes. 

Sometimes during the count we come across spoilt ballot papers.  The voter may not have voted at all or they may have voted for more candidates than they are allowed to or alternatively their vote may not be clear and we may not be able to see which candidate they voted for.  If this is the case we put them to one side and then we show them to the candidates at the end who will hopefully agree that they are truly spoilt ballot papers and they cannot count towards any of their totals.  We have to mark on a formal declaration how many spoilt ballot papers we have identified.  Thankfully there are not a lot of spoilt ballot papers during elections.

There are normally quite a few people employed in the count, in Blyth Valley, for instance,  there will be no less than 50 counters and a number of support staff on the day.  The ward ballot papers can be counted quite quickly, sometimes this only takes 20 minutes to half an hour but depends of how big the ward is and the number of voters.  Large wards can take over an hour.  In the case of recounts this can take several hours which makes it a long and tedious day for both the counter and the candidates.

Ballot papers are always counted twice.  First of all the paper is checked to ensure that the number of papers the Presiding Officer has said they have received on their statements matches with the number contained in the Ballot Box.  This is done by putting them into batches of 50 papers.  If this is correct all the ballot papers for that ward are mixed together and they are then sorted out into bundles for each candidate.  Once again they are put into batches of 50 and then totalled up for each candidate. The supervisor, who is watching this process, takes the total over to the Returning Officer.  The Returning Officer checks that total against the number for that ward.  The Returning Officer gets the candidates and their agents together and shares the draft results with them and show them the spoilt ballot papers.  The aim of the Returning Officer is to get an agreement on the total votes cast and the spoilt ballot papers.    If the Returning Officer gets an agreement, the result can then be written up by one of the election staff.  The Returning Officer then takes the result onto the stage and announces it for all the people in the room.   Once the result is announced that candidate is then elected and can only be queried through a court.