Sorting ballot papers for a District Council ward election, Stoneleigh Park

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Sorting ballot papers for a District Council ward election, Stoneleigh Park by Robin Stott as part of the Geograph project.

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Sorting ballot papers for a District Council ward election, Stoneleigh Park

Image: © Robin Stott Taken: 9 May 2015

After the polls closed at 10pm on Thursday 7 May, the sealed ballot boxes and the mountains of paperwork were taken to the counting centre in a group of large exhibition halls at Stoneleigh Park. The ballot boxes were opened and the ballot papers unfolded and sorted into neat bundles. For the results of the local elections, the votes were counted on the Saturday. Here four seated count assistants are carrying out the initial sort into 'block votes' and 'others', scrutinised by candidates and agents on the left. Block votes are ballot papers where the elector has voted for all the candidates of the same party. These were bundled into 25s and the number of votes easily calculated and recorded. The choices on the far larger group of 'others' were transferred manually in pencil on to a form and totalled. Somebody somewhere must have been doing the big-picture adding up and checking. When all the numbers had been agreed the Returning Officer (usually the Chief Executive of the authority) showed the candidates and agents the spoilt ballot papers in case they wanted to challenge them, then announced the result. The high degree of organisation, and the several stages of the count threw up all the errors and anomalies that arose in the poll. Everyone was very good-natured despite the intensity of the process.

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Image Location

coordinates on a map icon
Latitude
52.338658
Longitude
-1.527938