London Mayoral Election 2024

[Cloo]

I suspect Hall’s tardiness is down to deliberate stalling by whoever was paid to deliver them

I did wonder....

 

[skyscraper101]

Why does it take until Saturday afternoon to declare in London. Can't they just count it all on the same night per the General Elections?

 

[Orang Utan]

Why does it take until Saturday afternoon to declare in London. Can't they just count it all on the same night per the General Elections?

I expect it’s because there are more votes to count. They also didn’t start counting til this morning. I think they’ve also gone back to counting manually this time, as they also had to be prepared for a possible general election

 

[skyscraper101]

They need to sort it out and start the count as soon as the polls close and the ballot boxes are delivered in record time by an army of volunteers against the clock. Sunderland style. No sleep.

 

[Bingoman]

I expect it’s because there are more votes to count. They also didn’t start counting til this morning. I think they’ve also gone back to counting manually this time, as they also had to be prepared for a possible general election

Not only I think they have the assembly election to count too

 

[Orang Utan]

Not only I think they have the assembly election to count too

Aye, that’s what I meant by more votes to count

 

[Orang Utan]

They need to sort it out and start the count as soon as the polls close and the ballot boxes are delivered in record time by an army of volunteers against the clock. Sunderland style. No sleep.

Tell that to the council workers who are already overworked and having to do all of this on top of their normal jobs!

 

[skyscraper101]

I'm joking of course. I just want the money shot of Binface and Brian Rose et al with a defeated Susan Hall already.

 

[scifisam]

Tell that to the council workers who are already overworked and having to do all of this on top of their normal jobs!

According to the other thread about working in a polling station, they're not council workers (or they can be, but they can be anyone), and they don't do this job on top of their normal job.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Tell that to the council workers who are already overworked and having to do all of this on top of their normal jobs!

According to the other thread about working in a polling station, they're not council workers (or they can be, but they can be anyone), and they don't do this job on top of their normal job.

I think the answer is 'it depends'

It's not compulsory that polling station / counting staff have to be council workers, but in most places, majority tend to be either current council workers, friends and family of, or retired council workers. it's only fairly recently i've noticed some councils (including round here) making it known to the wider public that they want more people to do it.

There's no compulsion to do it (not at polling station level or the count level anyway) but think for some senior council officers it's effectively part of the job - think each council's chief executive is ultimately in charge of the whole thing whether they want to be or not, and of course there's a (relatively small) full time electoral services team which deals with voter registration through the year and presume their job includes co-ordinating what happens on election / count days.

General rule - if you're a council worker - is you get normal pay for the day, but it's counted as public duty (or something like that) so you don't have to take a day's holiday to do it, then you get a payment for the day as well.

In terms of being 'on top of normal jobs' - depends whether you're in the sort of job where the work gets done if you're not there, or if some / all of it stays on your desk / in-box until you're back (my job is closer to the latter than the former.)

 

[Orang Utan]

According to the other thread about working in a polling station, they're not council workers (or they can be, but they can be anyone), and they don't do this job on top of their normal job.

IME it’s mostly council workers, but that’s up here in Leeds.

 

[Elpenor]

I think the answer is 'it depends'

It's not compulsory that polling station / counting staff have to be council workers, but in most places, majority tend to be either current council workers, friends and family of, or retired council workers. it's only fairly recently i've noticed some councils (including round here) making it known to the wider public that they want more people to do it.

There's no compulsion to do it (not at polling station level or the count level anyway) but think for some senior council officers it's effectively part of the job - think each council's chief executive is ultimately in charge of the whole thing whether they want to be or not, and of course there's a (relatively small) full time electoral services team which deals with voter registration through the year and presume their job includes co-ordinating what happens on election / count days.

General rule - if you're a council worker - is you get normal pay for the day, but it's counted as public duty (or something like that) so you don't have to take a day's holiday to do it, then you get a payment for the day as well.

In terms of being 'on top of normal jobs' - depends whether you're in the sort of job where the work gets done if you're not there, or if some / all of it stays on your desk / in-box until you're back (my job is closer to the latter than the former.)

Of the four people verifying at my table last night one worked at the relevant district council, one was county council, one was a freelance stage manager and there was me, a public sector worker. All of us were doing it for the extra cash. No day off for me but if I did a daytime duty I’d use flexi

I also saw one of the HR managers at my work place who had previously worked at the district council.

 

[Orang Utan]

I think the answer is 'it depends'

It's not compulsory that polling station / counting staff have to be council workers, but in most places, majority tend to be either current council workers, friends and family of, or retired council workers. it's only fairly recently i've noticed some councils (including round here) making it known to the wider public that they want more people to do it.

There's no compulsion to do it (not at polling station level or the count level anyway) but think for some senior council officers it's effectively part of the job - think each council's chief executive is ultimately in charge of the whole thing whether they want to be or not, and of course there's a (relatively small) full time electoral services team which deals with voter registration through the year and presume their job includes co-ordinating what happens on election / count days.

General rule - if you're a council worker - is you get normal pay for the day, but it's counted as public duty (or something like that) so you don't have to take a day's holiday to do it, then you get a payment for the day as well.

In terms of being 'on top of normal jobs' - depends whether you're in the sort of job where the work gets done if you're not there, or if some / all of it stays on your desk / in-box until you're back (my job is closer to the latter than the former.)

Aye, I’ve been tempted to do it for the extra pay but have demurred cos it would be so boring

 

[scifisam]

In terms of being 'on top of normal jobs' - depends whether you're in the sort of job where the work gets done if you're not there, or if some / all of it stays on your desk / in-box until you're back (my job is closer to the latter than the former.)

Isn't that the same for any official holiday leave, though?

I personally know four people being polling clerks this year, and none of them work for the council. Like I said, they can be council workers, but they don't have to be.

Basically, I don't think them possibly working for the council and having to work two jobs at once is the reason why the votes aren't being counted overnight in London this year. They're not even being counted today, only "verified." The count isn't till tomorrow. It seems like a weirdly delayed process to me - maybe there is a good reason for it, but what, I don't know.

 

[Elpenor]

The bumf I received implied there are regulations which say when the count must begin by / result must be known by and it varied for election type, so had there been a GE and PCC where I was yesterday, would have done GE first, then PCC on Saturday.

So I guess non GE elections aren’t really that urgent?

 

[Orang Utan]

London mayor election: Why will the result not be announced today?

The votes of around two million Londoners are expected to have to be counted to get the full result

www.standard.co.uk

 

[scifisam]

London mayor election: Why will the result not be announced today?

The votes of around two million Londoners are expected to have to be counted to get the full result

www.standard.co.uk

. That doesn't answer it, especially because it also implies that the vote counters are exhausted volunteer council workers ("there may be a small payment" - there's always a decent extra payment!), which isn't true.

It does not say why nothing's being done overnight, or why verification takes a whole extra day, or why this election takes longer to count than a general election.

 

[Orang Utan]

. That doesn't answer it, especially because it also implies that the vote counters are exhausted volunteer council workers ("there may be a small payment" - there's always a decent extra payment!), which isn't true.

It does not say why nothing's being done overnight, or why verification takes a whole extra day, or why this election takes longer to count than a general election.

The extra assembly votes surely take longer to count.
And overnight counting might be a cost issue.
I think many counters ARE council workers despite your anecdotal evidence.
Whatever the case is, I doubt there’s anything fishy going on, so it’s not really worth thinking about too much. Just inefficient systems and lots of votes to count innit

 

[scifisam]

The extra assembly votes surely take longer to count.
And overnight counting might be a cost issue.
I think many counters ARE council workers despite your anecdotal evidence.
Whatever the case is, I doubt there’s anything fishy going on, so it’s not really worth thinking about too much. Just inefficient systems and lots of votes to count innit

Many are council workers, but they're not doing this as poor overworked volunteers! Some of them being council workers as their usual job is completely irrelevant.

That page does not actually give a hint as to why this election is taking longer than general elections, and even longer than the time recently where there London had general elections and local elections (and, in my area at least, borough mayoral elections), on the same day.

I don't really think it's anything fishy either, but it's odd, and I'm allowed to wonder why strange things happen.

 

[Bingoman]

The mayoral candidate for reform is speaking on the BBC and thinks sadiq Khan will still win

 

[brogdale]

The mayoral candidate for reform is speaking on the BBC and thinks sadiq Khan will still win

Clearly a shrewd political observer.

 

[andysays]

The mayoral candidate for reform is speaking on the BBC and thinks sadiq Khan will still win

Hold the Front Page!

 

[tim]

The mayoral candidate for reform is speaking on the BBC and thinks sadiq Khan will still win

Let's hope Khan's majority over the Tory is less than the total of Reform votes.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

SUSAN HALL DECLARED LONDON MAYOR!

Blimey!

I hope this doesn't happen, but it would free Sadiq Khan to run for parliament in the next few months and maybe he'll follow BoJo's path to the top job.

 

[brogdale]

I hope this doesn't happen, but it would free Sadiq Khan to run for parliament in the next few months and maybe he'll follow BoJo's path to the top job.

"BoJo", FFS, get a grip.

 

[kenny g]

According to the other thread about working in a polling station, they're not council workers (or they can be, but they can be anyone), and they don't do this job on top of their normal job.

I used to do the count in the evening. Finally decided getting my kip was more important - especially as I seemed to be roped in at 3am to recount for the one team who had invariably fucked up. Once did a full tables recount with one other guy whose usual job was as a croupier.
As much as the main bod always emphasised accuracy over speed you would get teams who completely ballsed it up and then had to have it all redone again. Maybe it's an age thing but I started worrying I would melt down at some point.
Sitting in a room as a presiding officer from 6am to 10pm has never had any attraction but loads of people I know go for it and appreciate the money.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Why does it take until Saturday afternoon to declare in London. Can't they just count it all on the same night per the General Elections?

Should be quicker this time as it's FPTP so there are no second choices to count.

 

[twistedAM]

Just had to explain Binface's slogan of Make Earth Great Again to a colleague who soon came round to the opinion that the slogan was indeed mega.

 

[nottsgirl]

I want to know the result. Go Saad

 

[Wilf]

I think the answer is 'it depends'

It's not compulsory that polling station / counting staff have to be council workers, but in most places, majority tend to be either current council workers, friends and family of, or retired council workers. it's only fairly recently i've noticed some councils (including round here) making it known to the wider public that they want more people to do it.

There's no compulsion to do it (not at polling station level or the count level anyway) but think for some senior council officers it's effectively part of the job - think each council's chief executive is ultimately in charge of the whole thing whether they want to be or not, and of course there's a (relatively small) full time electoral services team which deals with voter registration through the year and presume their job includes co-ordinating what happens on election / count days.

General rule - if you're a council worker - is you get normal pay for the day, but it's counted as public duty (or something like that) so you don't have to take a day's holiday to do it, then you get a payment for the day as well.

In terms of being 'on top of normal jobs' - depends whether you're in the sort of job where the work gets done if you're not there, or if some / all of it stays on your desk / in-box until you're back (my job is closer to the latter than the former.)

Exactly that in terms of getting paid twice (your normal pay for you r job + the poll clerk fee). I did it twice around 1983. It was because I was on a rotation as a trainee and ended up working in the elections unit in Rochdale for a few weeks. As part of that I had to go out with one of the senior council bods and visit the polling stations to see everything was working. All a bit difficult as I was heavily involved in the local Labour Party and kept getting greeted warmly at each stop! The other was simply working as a poll clerk. A nice little earner - apart from the fact you don't get meal breaks and have to dash to the loo in between voters.