Planning for the verification, count and collation of results
You should work closely with the CROs and inform them early on, of any directions you intend to issue, and decisions about how the verification and counting and results collation is to be organised and managed across the Greater London area.
You should plan and complete your consultation, dialogue and decision-making in good time, before the formal election campaign period begins. This is to enable CROs to reflect your decisions in their planning for the verification and count. communicated to. You should also engage with any other stakeholders that have an interest, before such as candidates and agents, political parties, voters and the media.
While you should seek input from those affected or interested to inform your decision-making, ultimately the responsibility for making decisions remains with you as GLRO.
One of the aspects of the election process, for both the Mayor of London election and the London-wide Assembly election, where you will particularly want to ensure that there is consistency is the verification and counting of votes and collation of the result. You will therefore need to consider when, where and how the votes are verified and counted by the CROs.
However, the verification and count are organised, you should ensure that the CROs plans will deliver a consistent standard of administration.
In developing your plans, you should have regards to the Commission’s principles for a well-run verification and count and consider other practical factors that may affect the organising and timing of the verification and the count. You can find more information about the count in our guidance for CROs on verifying and counting the votes.
You should record all your decisions about when, where and how to verify and count, and communicate these to those who may be affected, bearing in mind that here may be different arrangements in place in different parts of the Greater London area.
If different arrangements will be in place in different parts of the Greater London area, you should ensure that you communicate clearly to candidates and agents, and others who may be attending or observing verification or count processes, which aspects of those processes may differ, and why.
You should put in place a robust protocol for the two-way communication of verification and count information between you and CROs, including verification figures and the communication of the required local count totals.