Guidance for Returning Officers administering Local Government Elections in England

You should open all boxes in full view of any agents that are present. When a box has had a seal attached by an agent, you should take particular care to show to any agents present that this seal is still intact prior to it being broken. 

All count processes should be transparent. You should also provide appropriate opportunities for those who are entitled to observe and to object to doubtful ballot paper adjudication decisions. This should include ensuring that you store bundles of counted ballot papers in full sight of counting agents to allow them to monitor progress throughout the count.

Mixing

You must mix the ballot papers so that ballot papers from each ballot box are mixed with ballot papers from at least one other ballot box, and mix the postal ballot papers with ballot papers from at least one other ballot box before sorting and counting the votes.1  

Sorting and counting

Ballot papers must be kept face upwards throughout the counting process in order to prevent the number and other unique identifying mark on the back of the ballot paper being seen.2  The ballot papers should be visible at all times to any candidates, agents and observers present.  

Single-member vacancies 

Counting assistants should sort the ballot papers into votes for each candidate. Any doubtful ballot papers should be placed aside for adjudication.

The number of votes given for each candidate should then be counted and placed into bundles of a predetermined number, e.g., bundles of 10, 20, 25, 50 or 100.

They should attach a slip bearing the candidate’s name, together with the number of ballot papers in the bundle, to the front. It may be helpful to colour-code the slips. The bundles should then be recounted by another counting assistant in order to ensure the accuracy of the bundle.

Supervisors should flick through the bundles in order to ensure that all of the votes in the bundle are marked in the same way before removing them from the counting staff.

It is unlikely that the number of votes in the final bundle will equal the predetermined bundle number, and so a note should be made of the number of votes in those incomplete bundles and attached to the front of the bundle. 

Multi-member vacancies 

There are several options for counting votes for multi-member wards, including the ‘grass-skirt’ method and counting sheets. It is also possible to use a combination of these methods, depending on local preference.

Counting assistants could start by extracting the ballot papers where a voter has used all their votes for candidates of a particular political party – this is often known as ‘block voting’ – and count them separately. 

The block voting can be used alongside both the grass skirt and counting sheet methods. The following table outlines how to use the grass skirt and the counting sheet.

For both methods, the unused votes should be recorded by having a spare row at the bottom of the sheet.

Recording the unused votes will enable reconciliation of the number of votes recorded against the total number of votes expected (i.e. the number of ballot papers multiplied by the number of votes permitted on each ballot paper). 

You should set aside any doubtful ballot papers for adjudication.