With the snap election looming on Thursday, spare a thought for the small army of staff who will be working hard behind the scenes to count votes cast on the day and man polling booths.
Swindon Borough Council’s deputy returning officer, Sally Spraston, explained: “It’s a bit more of a challenge this time around. Normally we have about four months to prepare but with this snap election, we have been given just six weeks to get everything organised. Some people think that we might be given some inside knowledge about when elections are called but this is not the case - we know at the same time that everyone else finds out.”
On the day Sally and her colleague, Returning Officer Stephen Taylor, rely on a team of about 600 people to help out on the day. Of these, about 200 will be counting and the rest have other roles including collecting and transporting ballot boxes and manning Swindon’s 102 polling stations.
“We do have quite a few volunteers who work with us. Many are people who have worked with us for years. We check the volunteers who work for us. They have to agree that they are not working for any political party.”
Among those helping out will be representatives from the police cadets.
On June 8, polling booths will be open from 7am to 10pm. Then at 10pm, the ballot boxes are transported to Swindon’s Oasis Centre where the count begins.
“We are quite experienced at this, so hopefully it should run like a well oiled machine. Each box is taken to the allocated counting table and we make a start.”
The team aims to count votes for the Swindon North area first - aiming to complete by about midnight. Then the votes cast for Swindon South will follow, with the team hoping to complete their task by about 1.30pm.
“I’m aware that some areas they try to get their count done in record time but our priority is making sure that everything is done correctly.”
She added that as long as the intention of the voter is clear, most marks, such as ticks or a circle will be accepted as valid votes.
Swindon’s election in numbers
- A total of 152,583 people have registered to vote in Swindon.
- 14,000 vote applications since the election was announced.
- More than 800 people have registered for a proxy vote.
- More than 30,000 have applied for a postal vote
- A total of 590 staff will be working on the day to help process votes.
- About 200 staff will be working on the counting team.
- 102 ballot boxes will be used
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