Guidance for Returning Officers administering Local Government Elections in England

Print full guidance

Receipt and management of ballot papers and election material at the verification

You should have a team of trained staff responsible for registering receipt of every ballot box, the postal votes and the other materials that have been delivered from polling stations and postal votes delivered to the Returning Officer at council offices.

You should organise the packets and parcels from polling stations so that you can easily locate any packet.

The sacks containing the documents that need to be stored, including sealed corresponding number lists, sealed packets of rejected postal votes and accompanying packets of postal vote return forms, need to be separated from those containing items that will be reused, such as general stationery items.

You can then release the various materials received back from polling stations to the receiving staff in the relevant teams, to enable verification of the unused ballot papers and the opening of accepted postal votes to commence. These processes can run simultaneously to the verification of used votes.

The following table summarises the action you should take for each type of sealed packet received:

Sealed packets received	Action to take
Ballot paper accounts	Take the ballot paper accounts to staff dealing with the ballot box verification process to enter onto the statement as to the result of verification
Spoilt and unused ballot papers	Open, count and reseal all packets1 Supply the number counted to the verification staff
Tendered ballot papers and tendered votes list	Do not open the sealed packets of tendered ballot papers2 Open and reseal the packet containing the tendered votes list and check it against the ballot paper accounts3
Corresponding number lists Certificates of employment Marked copies of the register Lists of proxies Rejected postal votes and the accompanying postal vote return forms	Do not open these packets4 Keep them sealed and placed in a designated and secure area for the duration of the verification and count
Accepted postal ballots handed in at the polling station or to the Returning Officer	You will need to undertake the final opening of postal votes handed in at polling stations You may do this either at the verification venue or at some other premises. In either case, you need to have a mechanism to record the number of postal votes received

In line with your document retention policy, you should ensure that:

the materials that you must keep sealed are placed in a designated and secure area for the duration of the verification and count
any personal data is destroyed at the appropriate time

Last updated: 20 February 2024