E-counting

A photoograph of London City hall from the rear

When the polling stations close at 10pm on 1 May 2008, your ballot papers will start their journey through the counting process. Around six million ballot papers from around London will be processed to get the results for the Mayor of London and the London Assembly contests.

The votes in the London elections are counted electronically. The London elections have always been counted in this way and are the largest elections in the UK that are done so. The count starts on 2 May 2008 at 9am and will take place at 3 count centres – Alexandra Palace, Excel and Olympia.

Electronic counting involves scanning each ballot paper to get an electronic image, counting the votes on each paper and then calculating the results for each contest.

The whole process should take around 12 hours, depending on turnout . If the same number of votes were counted manually, it would take around 2-3 days to complete.

The process of electronic counting consists of:

registering the ballot boxes
scanning the ballot papers
verifying the numbers of papers in the boxes against the written ballot box accounts
Returning Officer staff adjudicating ‘ doubtful ’ ballot papers.

Valid votes are counted throughout the process. Once all of the ballot boxes have been through this process, the results are calculated and announced.

Watch a video of the complete e-counting process.

	The e-counting process
1.	Voters insert their completed ballot papers into the ballot box at the polling station. Voters will be asked not to fold their ballot papers, as this can slow down the e-counting process.
2.	When the polling station closes, the ballot boxes are taken to one of the three count centres.
3.	Each ballot box has a number that links it to the polling station and borough that it came from. It also has an account of the number of ballot papers that polling station staff issued at the polling station.
4.	The ballot boxes are securely stored overnight at the count centres until the count starts at 9am on 2 May.
5.	When the count starts, every ballot box is registered on the e-counting system. All the information about the box and its contents is registered – this is used for verification later on in the process.
6.	Once all ballot boxes have been registered, the count starts.
7.	The first ballot box is allocated to a free scanner for scanning to begin.
8.	The scanner performs a number of operations at the same time. - It checks against various security features to ensure the ballot paper is genuine. - It counts the number of ballot papers being fed through it. - It records how each vote has been cast and stores images of ‘doubtful’ ballot papers.
9.	All valid votes are recorded and counted.
10.	Images of all doubtful papers are taken and stored for later adjudication by election officials.
11.	Any ballot paper that cannot physically be fed through the scanner – for example if it is torn – is entered manually into the system by an election official.
12.	When all papers from the box have been scanned, the total number of ballot papers scanned is ‘verified’ by comparing it with the number from the ballot box.
13.	If there is a difference in the numbers, election staff will investigate and may re-scan a batch of ballot papers. Once the numbers have been confirmed, the count data is stored.
14.	Election officials adjudicate the images of doubtful ballot papers. This process is projected onto screens so that election observers can see the officials’ decisions.
15.	If the voter’s intention is clear, the election officials enter the votes and accept the ballot paper as valid. No votes can be rejected at this first stage of adjudication.
16.	If the voter’s intention is unclear, the election officials pass the ballot paper to the Constituency Returning Officer (CRO) for a second stage of adjudication. The CRO adjudicates all the ballot papers that have been referred to him or her in the same way as that of first level adjudication. This process is called CRO adjudication.
17.	The CRO can reject votes if they are not valid – for example if a voter has voted for too many people or they have spoiled their ballot paper.
18.	Once all the votes have been counted and adjudicated, the data is stored and it is sent securely to City Hall.
19.	The Returning Officer for each London Assembly constituency announces the results for their constituency locally, at the count centres. The results for the Mayor and London-wide Assembly Members are announced at City Hall.
20.	The whole process should take around 12 hours, finishing around or before 9pm.