By Kate Whannel, Political reporter
Sara ChaneOn election day, millions of us will be casting our votes.
Around 150,000 polling station staff will be running 40,000 polling stations across the UK.
Electoral service managers will have woken up at the crack of dawn knowing they won’t get anymore sleep until well into Friday after the counting is done.
It is a big job and a serious business – but here are a few stories from the lighter side of running elections.
EPAWe’ve got used to seeing dogs in polling stations.
Poultry, less so.
Council workers Sara Chane and Lindsey Carroll were at the polling station in Skelmersdale, Lancashire in May 2021 for the local elections when a chicken wandered in.
With no accompanying human – and no valid voter ID – Sara and Lindsey began trying to track down the chicken’s owner, including enlisting the help of a nearby florists, all while continuing to run the polling station.
“Come in, don’t mind the chicken, we told voters,” says Lindsey.
“She was very lovely, very friendly,” adds Sara.
Eventually a family of farmers offered to take the chicken away while its rightful owner was tracked down.
But minutes later, a five-year-old boy turned up to looking for his pet, who he said was named Matilda.
‘What have we done?’
Lindsey says that began a frantic hunt to reunite the boy with Matilda, amid fears the wayward bird had inadvertently been handed to chicken farmers.
“We were panicking at this point,” says Lindsey. “Have we given this chicken to someone who is just going to kill her?”
Eventually Matilda was tracked down and reunited with her rightful owners – but not before a little more trauma for the bird.
Matilda, it transpired had been placed in a pen with a number of other chickens who had rounded on her and given her a literal hen-pecking.
The relieved owners took their pet chicken home and gave her a bath, while Lindsey and Sara carried on with their democratic duties.
A few hours later, Matilda’s family returned to the polling station with chocolates and a tray of eggs as a thank you for helping them retrieve their fugitive feathered friend.
Chickens aren’t the only unexpected polling station visitors.
Peter Stanyon, chief executive of Association of Electoral Administrators, recalled one incident from the south-west of England when a voter was on a hunt.
Seeing the polling station, they decided the pursuit of democracy was more urgent and rode their horse straight into the polling station.
At other times, polling stations can get quiet.
Nevertheless clerks find ways of passing the time.
Peter remembers one worker in Merseyside who got in trouble when, during a lull, he volunteered to be a last-minute stand-in Santa Claus for a children’s Christmas party in the room above the polling station.
He thought he had got away with it but got a shock when the next person to sit on his knee was a council inspector who had come by the polling station to see how things were getting on.
Fire, fire
In Wakefield, one woman accidentally dropped her £40,000 engagement ring into the ballot box, along with her ballot paper.
Once sealed, a ballot box cannot be reopened until the election count.
It meant the unfortunate bride-to-be had to turn up at the count hours later and wait for the box to be opened.
“It was a valuable ring,” says Peter, but “not more valuable than democracy.”
The rule stating that a ballot box cannot be reopened has unfortunate consequences for polling station workers as well as the affianced.
Until about 15 years ago, ballot boxes were closed shut with sealing wax. Occasionally the heat from the wax could lead to smouldering.
Polling station workers couldn’t open the box to put out the potential flames so instead had to find a way to get liquid into the box to put out the fire without causing too much damage to the votes.
‘We are the elves’
Often, the ballot papers aren’t damaged by flames, but the voters themselves.
Tom Lynan has been an electoral services manager in West Lancashire for nine years.
He says rude words and anatomical drawings on ballot papers are common.
During elections for police and crime commissioners, Tom says voters used to like to add Batman or Commissioner Gordon as their second preferences.
He also says his sister-in-law once threatened to write spoilers for Game of Thrones episodes on her ballot paper, knowing that he would likely have to read it overnight.
Despite that particular challenge, Tom still enjoys his job. He says there is “pride in being able to facilitate democracy for the people of the borough”.
He says: “People have protested and fought over the right to vote, and we are the custodians of the process that is the foundation of this country and its values.
“The day before polling day is like Christmas Eve and we are the elves, but rather than presents being delivered it is an election being delivered.”
