London Elects

A photoograph of London City hall from the rear

London Elects is the independent body in charge of organising the elections of the London Mayor and London Assembly. The team works directly for the Greater London Returning Officer (Anthony Mayer) under a separate budget and reporting lines from other GLA staff.


London Elects has two distinct functions – operations and communications.


Operations

The operations team is responsible for the planning and co–ordination of all logistical aspects of the elections. The team works closely with electoral staff in the 32 London boroughs and the City of London to provide training and support for polling station staff and to ensure that suitable venues are selected for counting votes. They will also manage candidate nominations for the Mayoral election and the London–wide list section of the London Assembly election.


The operations team manages the contract with Indra, the company providing electronic vote–counting, and works with government on budget and legal issues.


Communications

The communications team ensures that the election process is transparent and that information is made available to everyone – to London voters, candidates and political parties, the media and stakeholders.


Another important part of the team’s work is voter education. London Elects will explain the voting process, and address the relevance of the Mayor and the London Assembly to the lives of Londoners.


Activity is targeted at all of London’s adult population. This will include the 5.3m registered voters and the unknown number of people in London who are eligible to vote but who are not registered.


The communications team are working with the Electoral Commission on a public information campaign to raise the number of registered voters in London.


Other activites in the communications plan include:

  • a wide–reaching advertising campaign
  • the London Elects website
  • PR activity, including briefings for journalists and events to promote the election
  • paper publications, including factsheets, staff training materials, candidate information and a monthly newsletter called “The Ballot Paper”
  • a ‘mayoral address’ booklet, containing ‘mini–manifestos’ from mayoral candidates, which must be delivered, by law, to all of London’s 5.3m voters.

The communications team is also responsible for co–ordinating communications and media management during the counting of ballot papers and announcement of results.