As GLRO you must for collate and approve the count totals for each constituency for both the London-wide Assembly Member and Mayor of London elections.
Following the agreed protocol process each CRO must, as soon as practicable, inform you of the contents of the statement of local totals.1
Checking and approving local totals
Checking and authorising these totals is a key stage in ensuring that the result is accurate and that there is a clear and unambiguous audit trail.
You need to have in place a robust checking process to be able to satisfy yourself that the local totals are accurate and that information and figures are recorded and transmitted accurately by CROs, and recorded and collated accurately by you and your staff.
In particular, you should consider how to ensure that the following are recorded and transmitted consistently and accurately:
the total number of ballot papers going forward to the count, ensuring that this figure includes all ballot papers from polling stations and postal vote openings
the total number of votes cast for each candidate / party
the total number of rejected votes and the numbers recorded in each category for rejection
the total number of votes counted plus the total number of rejected votes should equal the total number of ballot papers that have gone forward to the count
Before you formally accept any local count totals, you should be confident that the CRO who has provided them, has checked and remedied any variances including checking for any transcription errors. Our guidance for CROs has further information on reconciliation of count totals.
If there is any variance in these figures, you should require the CRO to take whatever steps they think are necessary and appropriate to try to resolve the variance, and to be able to explain any remaining variance to you.
Once you are satisfied with the local totals for the London-wide Assembly member and Mayor of London elections you may authorise the CRO to give public notice of the statements of local totals of number of votes cast and ballot papers rejected.2