Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Greater London Authority (GLA) election

You are responsible for verifying the ballot papers for all of the GLA elections votes cast in your constituency (i.e. votes not just in the Constituency Assembly Member election, but also in the Mayoral and London-wide Assembly Member elections).1

The verification process has two main purposes which are:

• to ensure and demonstrate that all ballot papers issued at polling stations and all returned postal ballot papers have been brought to the count, and
• to provide the figure with which the each of the count outcomes must reconcile 

You should keep both of these purposes in mind when conducting the verification process.

Ensuring accuracy at the verification stage is crucial to ensuring a timely count. If the verification figures are wrong there will be a variance against the count figures which will need to be resolved and which risks significantly slowing the overall process.