Tag Archives: telling

Michael Taylor

The future of telling?

By Michael Taylor | Wed 24th July 2024 - 11:55 am

I sat for an hour at a polling station in Camborne as part of my very long day on July 4th. I was struck by the change in voters’ habits. Whereas in the past they would bring their polling cards with them, one unexpected side effect of the new rules on voter ID has brought about is that they no longer do.

Now they bring ID with them.

I found it very difficult to get polling numbers at all. It was only possible – and then only in about 30% of cases – to get numbers by being quite pushy in asking voters to get their number from the poll clerk and give it to me on the way out. Those who know me well will have little doubt about my ability to be downright pushy, but I very much doubt that this is the right way to endear us to voters.

Now you can argue that telling isn’t really about the numbers but about being there, but we certainly have relied on telling to reduce our necessity to knock up. Indeed, that’s often how I used to sell telling to would be tellers. Asking people to go and stand in the polling station to be seen is, in my view, a much harder sell.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 15 Comments
Mark Pack

So why didn’t this teller just say, “Yes, I’m a Conservative”?

By Mark Pack | Thu 6th May 2010 - 6:27 pm

Rather odd behaviour by a Conservative teller in South West Surrey today who turned out to be very reluctant to admit they were telling on behalf of the Conservative Party, as the following video shows:

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Posted in Election law | Also tagged | 13 Comments
Mark Pack

Welcome advice on poll cards from the Electoral Commission

By Mark Pack | Mon 15th March 2010 - 1:50 pm

The 2010 edition of the Electoral Commission’s “Handbook for polling station staff” contains this welcome advice for those staff:

Most electors bring their poll card with them to show to the Poll Clerk even though this is not a requirement for most voters. Offer this poll card back to the elector. It will help them to give information to tellers outside if this is their wish.

It’s a small, but very welcome, recognition of the usefulness of tellers to the health of our electoral system. Tellers are party volunteers who gather information about who has voted. They therefore bring two benefits: first, …

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Posted in Election law | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
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