What could go wrong?

Mistakes could be made noting ballot seal numbers, which could lead to an unfounded allagation of ballot box tampering.

For hand written notes,  transcribing 6 digit numbers has a 1 in 60 error rate.  This rate goes down to 1 in 1,000 if numbers are transcribed twice under different conditions, for example a different person or a different time of day.  

For this reason out form 'Polling Station Ballot Seal Numbers Record' makes provision to record each number twice.  This can be a second person or revisiting each polling station to record numbers a second time.

Recruiting a Second Person

The second person could be:

• your own candidate's electoral agent, second polling agent registered by your candidate, or the candidate themselves

• a polling agent of another candidate

• a member of the polling station staff

Our preferred option is polling agents of other candidates, as they're already motivated to be a polling agent an it helps build fraternal relationships between rival teams.  You could email each candidate, tell them what you are doing. They may give you contact details or just let you come across their polling agents at polling stations.

If you would like to ask polling station staff, first ask electoral services before polling day and the presiding officer at each polling station. 

You can recruit someone to work with you polling day and register them as a polling agent. 

We recommend having a second person also transcribe the numbers. This could be another count agent,  from another party if you can gain their agreement, or one of the polling station staff, if electoral services an each presiding officer agree to that. Our form as two columns for seal numbers, and can be folded to hide the first person's record.