Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Senedd election

Polling stations should be laid out with the voter in mind. In particular, you should take into account the needs of voters with a range of disabilities. 

You should consider the positioning of all of the required furniture and equipment, as well as where all of the notices should be displayed, along with the placement of signage within the polling station and external signage.

You should develop plans for the layout of each of your polling stations which can be used to assist those setting up the polling stations. You should consider the voter experience and flow, including how the voter will move through the voting process from entering to exiting the polling station. The layout of the polling station should enable the voter to cast their vote in secret, and it should also allow polling station staff to detect if someone is trying to influence or gain information about the way in which an elector is voting.  

You will need to ensure that whoever is in charge of setting up polling stations knows how to do so and what the layout should be capable of achieving.

If someone other than polling station staff is setting up the polling station, your polling station staff should check that it has been set up properly. They should have reference to any layout plans you have produced and the polling station set-up checklist in the Commission’s polling station handbook when doing so. 

The polling station handbook also covers the positioning of equipment and display of notices and provides examples of layouts for both a room where there is one polling station and a room where there is more than one polling station.

You can find the Senedd polling station handbook in the polling station voting section of our resources page.

Polling station inspector visits can be used to check polling station set-up and to ensure that all notices remain properly displayed throughout polling day. We have developed the following checklist to support their visits. 

You can find the Checklist for Polling Station Inspectors in the polling station voting section of our resources page.

You can find more information on and resources for staff training on the set up of polling stations in our guidance on training presiding officers, poll clerks and polling station inspectors.