On arrival at 6.15am
On Wednesday 2 September election staff will have placed all the polling materials in the polling place and each polling station will have been identified with a numbered coloured poster on the table ranging from 1 through to 3.
Keyholders will have been asked to open the polling place at 6am on Thursday 3 September. On your arrival at 6.15am they will direct you to the area where the polling materials have been safely held overnight.
Each polling station has been allocated one blue crate and one ballot box and lid.
Each blue crate will have a ballot box number on the crate make sure you take the correct one for your station.
As a team, work together opening the blue crate and setting up your station. If you are a Polling Assistant without a station number you will be tasked first of all with placing posters outside the polling place and then placing the posters that are to be inside the polling place.
Polling stations must open and ready to receive voters at 7am. The doors should open and all polling tables and equipment must be fully set up, so that ballot papers can be issued to voters at 7am.
You must inform the elections office as soon as possible if you encounter any problems that may prevent you from issuing ballot papers at 7am.
Checking supplies and materials
The Presiding Officers should open the blue crate and check that they have been provided with all the supplies and materials they need for the day.
In particular they should check they have
- a tablet containing the electronic register for their area
- the correct amount of ballot papers in line with the spreadsheet in your clipboard
- ballot papers have no obvious numbering errors and they display the unique identifying mark and barcode on the back.
Senior Presiding Officers should also check that every polling station is starting on the correct ballot paper number in line with the electronic corresponding number list and the ballot paper account.
Ballot papers must be issued in the same order as they appear on the electronic corresponding number list. If the numbers do not match, contact the Elections Team immediately.
Ballot paper books must always be kept in numerical order. Place the book with the lowest numbers on the table and return the remaining books to the blue crate, together with the book of 20 pink tendered ballot papers.
Open of poll pictorial guide
In your blue crate you will find this step by step guide on how to successfully set up your polling station in time for the polls opening at 7am.
Sealing the ballot boxes
The Presiding Officer must close and seal the ballot box before 7am, after having shown all those entitled to be present that the box is empty.
If there are no observers or agents present, they must confirm that the box is empty by showing it to another member of staff. This is important.
Place the lid on top of the box and make sure that the ballot box lid and box is properly secured before attaching the four white seals. The 4 long white seals are inserted downwards into each hole like a straw, the seals then need to pass through both the holes in the lid and the box. The end of the seal is then passed through a hole on the seal and pulled night shut. This will need to be done for each hole on the ballot box lid.
At this stage election agents or polling agents are not allowed to put their seals / party stickers on the ballot box (however, they can do so at the close of poll.)
Place the A4 ballot box label in the front pocket of the ballot box and ensure it is visible to the voters and place the ballot box topper on top of lid.
The box must be placed within arm distance of the Presiding Officer who should be closest to the ballot booths to avoid crossovers from voters.
Finally the seal numbers from each of the white seals need to written on the Ballot Box Seal and Close of Poll form and checked by the Polling Assistant. The form will also be checked by the Day of Poll Inspector on their first visit to each polling station.
Be ready to issue ballot papers to voters at 7am
Polling assistants sit with the tablet which holds the register a proxy list electronically.
Presiding Officers sit with the ballot papers in front of them and they sit closest to the ballot box.
Each polling station should also have close to hand for use when needed
- blue forms and
- white additional forms
- any equipment or resources provided to the polling station to support disabled voters which should be kept in full view and offered to voters who need assistance.
Opening the poll training video
This video shows the opening of the poll process from the recent Scottish Parliament election and is still useful for understanding the overall preparations.
PLEASE NOTE: This election will be different. You will be using tablets with electronic registers, which will also include the corresponding number list and ballot paper account. Some of the processes shown in the video will therefore look different.
Use the video to understand the overall process, but follow the instructions provided in your current training for using tablets and completing the electronic records.