Whether Presiding Officers transport the ballot boxes to the verification and count venue or hand them over at a drop off point, you should make clear to the staff receiving the ballot boxes that no Presiding Officer should be allowed to leave until their ballot box(es) and all of the documents and packets have been received and checked off by the designated staff member and, wherever possible, a cursory check of the ballot paper account has been made. You should instruct staff receiving ballot boxes to ensure that they have the ballot paper account for each ballot box.
If Presiding Officers are bringing multiple ballot boxes to the verification venue/or collection point, you should provide staff to assist the Presiding Officer in transporting all ballot boxes and accompanying materials into the verification venue or collection point in one trip.
You should also record the time of arrival of each ballot box, so you can use this information for future reference.
Your process should ensure that anything missing can be quickly identified and action can be taken to locate the missing items.
You will also need to ensure that you have processes in place to ensure the security of any personal data included on the ballot papers and other paperwork from the polling station.
You should collate the details of all the polling stations in advance, together with the names and mobile phone numbers of each Presiding Officer so that you can easily contact Presiding Officers in the event of any problems.
Presiding Officers should record any issues for you to consider, if required, at the verification and count.
Your team of staff receiving materials from polling stations should use a checklist to ensure that you accurately account for all ballot boxes and ballot paper accounts, as well as any packets containing postal votes handed in at polling stations.
We have prepared a checklist for you to print out and use during the verification:
Where polls have been combined and separate ballot boxes have been used for each poll, you will need to produce further checklists to track the boxes and their accompanying paperwork for the other poll(s).