Abernathy wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2024 10:00 am
AOB wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2024 7:48 am
I did the council election count last year. Fucking pain in the arse some of those prospective councillors watching you count, point out a pile of votes, "don't forget these!". "I haven't fucking forgotten them, you bellend. They are the pile I will count shortly. Fuck off and leave me in peace to count." That's what I was thinking in my head with a pasted on smile.
They shouldn't have been doing that. What party workers generally do at election counts is in two phases : the first phase is verification that the number of ballot papers in a box tallies with the number that the presiding officer has recorded as having been issued. This is done with the papers face up, providing party workers with their best opportunity to sample the votes in order to make a rough prediction of the result on the night, and provide useful statistical information for future campaigns. The second phase is the counting of the actual votes, where counters place individual ballot papers into piles, one for each candidate. The party workers' brief at this phase is to keep an eagle eye on their principal opponent's (usually the Tory) pile, not the Labour pile - we don't care if any extra votes are wrongly placed on our pile, in fact it's a good thing, but you do want to be sure that the Tories don't get any votes they are not entitled to. Generally, it's okay to point it out if you spot a vote being wrongly put on the Tory pile.
And that's it. I'm a bit surprised someone was harassing you not to forget to count a load of votes, because that is not what they are meant to do.
Oh it happened. And we were forewarned it would by the supervisor (forgot his official term) of our pod of tables. That was the only count I've done so I didn't know if it was standard behaviour, I assumed so given the supervisor's earlier heads up too. I'm away this year, I would be open to doing a count again but election day is too long for me, I'm not good at being stuck indoors without a breather, but mostly I don't fancy doing battle 12 hours in to a long 15 hour shift with people who have forgot their ID, or unaware. 14% are unaware apparently. They either don't have a TV or always watch catch up and skip the ad breaks that have regular reminders about voter ID.
30 %
10 %
60 %
- By Boiler