‘I might be a bit of an election geek, but I live for count night,’ says Newcastle City Council’s former elections manager Ian Humphries “As a vote counter, you see all sorts on the ballot paper. Sometimes there are votes for more than one person; other times there areis and that they couldn’t vote for any of them. And quite often, there are drawings. Usually these are of certain body parts which indicate just what they think of the candidates.
On the night of a general election itself, the atmosphere in the counting centre is electric. Staff arrive around 9.30pm, and the counters will receive a bit of training on what they are expected to do. In the past two general elections, we have been first in the UK to declare, less than 90 minutes after polls close. Everyone asks if it is a race, particularly because our neighbouring council ofhad historically always been first to declare. When we were nine minutes faster in 2017, it was a bit like Newcastle was the new kid on the block. Before then, we had been something like 300th, so our being first was a surprise to everyone – even me.