Local election ballot papers to be quarantined for a day
COUNTING at the May elections will be delayed in England because ballot papers will need to be quarantined in case people have sneezed Covid virus on to them.
Thousands of council seats, along with mayoral elections, and policing and crime commissioner elections, are up for grabs in England, with assembly elections in Scotland and Wales, on Thursday May 6.
New guidance titled “Covid Secure Elections 2021” from Lawyers in Local Government, which represents council solicitors, recommends that “ballot papers will be quarantined for 24 hours prior to being handled by staff ”. This will mean that the count will start on Saturday May 8, not Friday May 7.
The group said this was “in the pursuance of limiting risk, and making sure the process is as safe as possible given many people used to count are over 50”. The last over-50s are due to be vaccinated just a week before election day.
One of the concerns is that tipping out the ballot papers could allow germs left there by voters to infect people counting the papers.
Jim McManus, Hertfordshire County Council’s director of public health, who helped draw up the guidance, told The Sunday Telegraph: “From our perspective, we also looked at what other elections did and will continue to review the evidence. Our continued question is whether tipping out large quantities of ballot papers from boxes can generate aerosols.”
However the Association of Electoral Administrators, which represents council returning officers, played down concerns about the safety of polling cards which are mailed out to voters, saying “there is no need to quarantine ballot papers before commencing the verification or count process” as long as usual Covid safety protocols are observed.
It also emerged that as many as one in four council workers might not turn up to help with the count. Somewhere in the region of 100,000 are needed to staff polling stations on May 6.
Around 40,000 polling stations will be open to voters from 7am to 10pm.