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

The verification process

You are responsible for the verification of all the ballot papers at the GLA elections:

Mayor of London
Constituency members for the Assembly of London
London-wide Assembly members

The verification of the used, unused and spoilt ballot papers is a legal requirement,1 and is central to the declaration of an accurate result.

The ballot papers must be sorted into their respective polls and the verification procedure completed for each of them.

As electors have been asked to place their ballot papers in separate ballot boxes for each poll the different ballot boxes should be verified at the same time, either at adjacent tables simultaneously or one after the other at the same table and any ballot paper placed in the ‘wrong’ box should be moved to the correct ballot box.

You must verify each ballot paper account and draw up a statement as to the result of the verification.2 This is a record of the number of ballot papers expected and the number of ballot papers counted, along with an explanation for any variances.

Any election agent may make a copy of the statement3 and you should make available copies for the agents present once the verification has been completed. The verification statement is a key communication tool that will help to ensure that candidates and agents are confident that the processes at the verification and count are transparent and that they will produce an accurate result.

As with all aspects of the verification and count process, transparency is key and the process followed should be clear to all present.

The key stages of the verification process are described in the following table:

Stage	Action to follow
Opening the packets of unused ballot papers	Staff must open the packets of unused ballot papers and ascertain the number of ballot papers that were not issued by noting the number of books and number of ballot papers remaining in any part book of ballot papers inside the packet The packets of spoilt ballot papers must also be opened and counted Both unused and spoilt ballot papers must be resealed after they have been counted4
Opening the ballot boxes	Staff must break the seals and open the ballot boxes in the presence of any counting agents and observers that are present.5 If candidates and agents are not present, you do not have to wait for them to arrive in order to break the seals When a box has had a seal attached by an agent at the close of the poll, particular care should be taken to show to any agents and observers present that this seal is still intact prior to it being broken The ballot papers should be carefully tipped onto the table, ensuring that none have fallen onto the floor and that the box is empty You have a legal duty to keep the ballot papers face up at all times during the verification and count6 You should show the empty box to the agents and observers so that they can be satisfied that it is indeed empty
Organising the ballot papers	The counting assistants should then unfold the ballot papers and count them into bundles Accuracy at this stage is vital, so bundles should be passed to another assistant for rechecking Any tendered ballot papers that have been mistakenly placed in the ballot box during the day should be removed and handed to the supervisor
Reconciling the papers	The totals given on the ballot paper account must be compared against the number of ballot papers counted and recorded as being present inside the ballot box You must compare the unused and spoilt ballot papers, as well as the tendered votes list, against the figures on each ballot paper account The total number of ballot papers in the ballot box should agree with the total on the ballot paper account, and reconcile with the total number of unused ballot papers7

Cross-checking processes

It is easy for simple arithmetic or transposition errors to be made, particularly when people become tired. You therefore need to put in place processes to mitigate this risk, such as ensuring that the recording of figures and every calculation is checked by more than one person.

The ballot papers are placed into bundles at various stages of the verification and it is important that procedures are put in place to double-check that the bundles have the correct number of ballot papers in them and, at the count stage, that they contain no more votes than the maximum allowed. This will be crucial to the accuracy of the verification and count.

You should make staff aware of this during briefings/training and senior staff should be alert to this at all times and intervene immediately if this is not being done.

Last updated: 8 December 2023