The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act says that the Chair of the Commission, or someone they appoint, is the Chief Counting Officer (CCO) for each referendum. They are responsible for running the referendum and announcing the result.
CCO for the UK-wide referendum, 5 May 2011Jenny Watson, the Chair of the Commission, was the Chief Counting Officer for this referendum. |
Role of the Chief Counting Officer
The Chief Counting Officer (CCO) is responsible for:
- appointing a Counting Officer for each local authority area within the referendum area
- calculating and declaring the total number of ballot papers counted
- calculating and declaring the total number of votes cast in favour of each answer to the referendum question (the result).
Role of Counting Officers
The CCO will appoint a Counting Officer for each local authority area that is taking part in the referendum. Counting Officers are responsible for:
- running the poll in their area
- making sure that all ballot papers that have been properly completed are included in the count
- counting the votes cast in their area
- calculating the number of votes cast in favour of each answer to the referendum question, and passing that information to the CCO
Role of Regional Counting Officers
For the referendum on the voting system for the UK Parliament on 5 May 2011, the legislation allowed the Chief Counting Officer to appoint Regional Counting Officers (RCOs), one for each of the 11 regions in the UK.
RCOs were appointed to support the Chief Counting Officer in the management and coordination of the referendum at a regional level, and to support Counting Officers in delivering the referendum locally.
Find out more about the appointment of the RCOs in our circular EC01/2011, or read the RCO job description.
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