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How are elections really run?
28 Plays17 days ago
Peter Stanyon, chief executive to The Association of Electoral Administrators, is interviewed by Jason McKenna as to how elections are delivered by staff across the country.
Peter’s years of experience delivering elections shines a light on the challenges, the stories and just what #dogsatpollingstations means to council staff and voters across the UK.
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Transcript
Election Day Logistics and Preparation
00:00:08
Speaker
What happens to make an election day work? Well, if you've ever wondered how polling days are run and democracy is delivered, we have the perfect guest for you. Today, I'm talking to Peter Stanion, Chief Executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators.
00:00:27
Speaker
the people behind the scenes who actually deliver our elections.
Introduction to the Observations Podcast
00:00:31
Speaker
This is the Observations podcast, and I'm your host, Jason McKenna. So first of all, Peter, welcome to the show.
Election Preparation and Logistical Challenges
00:00:38
Speaker
um It must be a very busy time for you because we've got local elections coming up across the country.
00:00:45
Speaker
Yeah, it is a busy time. the The good news being, however, it's a scheduled set of polls, so a lot of the preparation will have commenced now. way back in December of last year, if not earlier than that. um So unlike the general election last year, where literally six weeks, like notice given to put six months work into six weeks, this time around is a far more structured way of delivery, which is a relief, I would say.
00:01:13
Speaker
ah First of all, ah what would you say are the biggest logistical challenges that election staff face leading up to the polling day? So taking us all the way back to, you know, like you said, their six months work ah that goes into these.
00:01:30
Speaker
Yeah, well, I think the well-publicized elements, time is always the factor that will always come into it. We, you know, It's quite simple to say that an election is a project.
00:01:43
Speaker
It's not 25 day project, which many people seem to believe. It's a project that's got many um gateways that can't move. There are deadlines there for a reason. Sometimes it's quite difficult to explain the word no when you have to say no or you know in in those things. But logistically, it's about making sure um the venues are available. you know We do use a lot of public venues, private venues.
00:02:08
Speaker
It's one day a year, so it's a bit of an irritant in some instances to be able to have to get access to these um these these venues for polling stations, count venues, huge sports halls, school halls, et cetera, needed. So it's getting them sorted.
00:02:22
Speaker
um Probably one of the largest logistical challenges is staffing. um I previously worked in London, London Borough of Enfield for most of my career. We're talking close to 1,000 staff for one day, so it's quite a huge task.
00:02:36
Speaker
to get them appointed, trained up, doing the job ah to the best of their abilities and making sure it's delivered in the in
Managing Potential Failures in Elections
00:02:43
Speaker
safely. But you've also got third parties that come into this as well. It's not just returning officers to deliver the elections.
00:02:49
Speaker
They are reliant on printers. They're reliant on raw mail. So there's a lot of things in terms of the process that when you bring it all together into the pot, ah there's lots of points of failure that could take place in an election. The key point to it is to make sure you're ahead of the curve and any issues are dealt with early to to make sure that those those points of failure are do not occur effectively.
00:03:16
Speaker
could you Give us a breakdown as well as, and you know, describing the tasks of everybody here, because, you know, like you said, it's kind of a six month project.
00:03:27
Speaker
But last year with the snap election, it was all done so, so quickly. But, you know, what are the kind of breakdowns for for each month or each week or each day that you describe? Because there's so much for you and staff to be doing.
00:03:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's fair if if I was to say start in December. The reason you start December is that you've just published a revised version of the register. So you've got the electoral registration canvas out of the way. um so you start at that stage by um making the bookings for polling stations and confirming the bookings for polling stations because often it's done depending on your cycle of elections. It could well be you've got them every year, which makes life easier in terms of, well, we'll see you again next year, whereas where you've got sort of the all outs is slightly more complicated.
Election Day Responsibilities
00:04:10
Speaker
it's sort of making firming up on those elements of the bookings through the winter months is seeking the volunteers, seeking who will be available to work in the various roles, starting with the more senior roles in terms of the um deputy returning officers, the polling station inspectors, the key count staff, for example, and then seeking that assurance through the sort of January, February to making the appointments in March. And at the end of March, you're right into the cycle then of the election timetable starting formally. it's usually the last week of March for notice of election going up.
00:04:43
Speaker
Prior to that, again through January, February, March, you're liaising with your suppliers around print deadlines, liaising with Royal Mail when postal votes will be in their hands.
00:04:53
Speaker
And as you move in then towards the actual March, April period, electoral registration takes over again because you've got the last minute registrations coming in, absent voting coming in, obviously see postal votes and the like.
00:05:05
Speaker
And as you get to the the periods of then dealing with candidates um and ensuring they are aware of what their responsibilities are, what they need to do. Nominations, printing ballot papers throughout April into, well, April is the busy month obviously because you're then ahead of delivering either through postal votes or at the polling stations, in this case, Thursday 1st of May.
00:05:30
Speaker
So you're building up to that crescendo which starts off as making sure you've bedrocks in place way back in December to make sure you've got the, as I say, the structure in place to deliver those more um malleable elements of the process as we get closer to the election.
00:05:47
Speaker
And so you've talked us through all that build up period, it's it's months in the planning, but what do staff do on the election day? What are they doing to make sure that it's as easy and as ah as as good as possible for the voter?
00:06:02
Speaker
Well, for those in polling stations, it's straightforward. They're delivering directly. they're They're the face of the election. so Your volunteers will see that all the time in terms of polling stations. In terms of the core staff, those who are the professionals in the in the business, they are there simply to react.
00:06:17
Speaker
They are there to make sure that, as I mentioned earlier, the potential points of failure. um It's about ensuring that candidates, I wouldn't say behaving themselves, but if there are incidences taking place, liaising with agents to keep it you know um above board to make sure that um effectively, where there are surges in turnout. Staff are proportionate to those areas.
00:06:40
Speaker
So it's really just keeping ah ah watching brief when it gets to polling day. In theory, between 7 o'clock and 10 o'clock on polling day, we should all have our feet on the desk, so um ah drinking cups of coffee, eating doughnuts and the like, ah because it's all been done. The training's been done. The staff are out there doing their job.
00:06:57
Speaker
but it is reacting then to making sure that anything does not then blow into a major issue that will put the the election itself at risk. Well, yeah, let's talk about these points of failure then. What is the most common or the most common points of failure that arise at polling stations?
00:07:14
Speaker
The ones that maybe get the phones ringing back at the council as well? a lot of it it did it, in terms of process, I mean, it's it's difficult to say, there There's such a any part of the process itself could can cause issues. And ah wouldn't want to say there's any one more than any others, but the the ones in recent years have tended to come from public, have tended to come from, for example, if we just take the voter ID situation, I've been turned away from the polling station.
00:07:43
Speaker
I want to complain. i do not agree with this policy or those things. ah Electoral administrators get dragged into those sort of conversations, but the other the the simple answer is, well, the law is the law. and that's what is delivered. So um in terms of other issues, it's really making, well, the first issue is making sure all polling stations are open at seven o'clock.
00:08:01
Speaker
It doesn't matter by hook or by crook, in a boot of a car, it makes no odds. And again, I've had instances where you've you've you've had to react for that seven and making sure they're closed at 10 o'clock. um Queues developing at polling stations, it does happen.
00:08:16
Speaker
ah Certainly couple of general elections ago, think it was the 2017 general election, there were long queues outside of polling stations, which is a nice thing to see on one element, but a very panicky thing to see on another element because you want to get people through. But it did demonstrate that people wanted to ah to cast their ballot ah going forward. So there's no, ah think the one thing an electoral administrator will always say to you is there's no one issue that will arise in the day.
00:08:43
Speaker
You think you've seen it all and you haven't. It's as simple as that. you will You'll just simply need to be done your planning, um to and One of the things I say to returning officers on training is plan for the unexpected, which is the biggest oxymoron you could ever have, simply because if you plan for it, it's then not going to be unexpected.
00:09:01
Speaker
But as long as you've the the teams have got the are able to react quickly, the key point being that the voters can arrive and vote without them knowing there's an issue going on potentially at a polling station itself.
00:09:15
Speaker
Well, you've mentioned there sometimes using the back of cars for voting. You've mentioned the unexpected. So what is the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you on a polling day?
00:09:27
Speaker
Without dropping myself in it in terms of a legal challenge, there are lots of things where it's things such as back in the day, tends to test happen if you close a poll.
00:09:40
Speaker
ah um the so The start of the day is people have not turned up. At the start the day, there was one instance that was reported to us the last general election where the caretakers refused to get out of bed to open it because they'd had a late night the night before and they were dragged to the polling station by their father to open the polling station who happened to have been the first person to go and cast their vote.
00:10:00
Speaker
They were about to break the door down into this particular venue. I've broken into a venue before um because the keys just simply have not worked. you've got to get it open. It doesn't happen now, but in the good old days of wax, sealing wax and tapers, we've had ballot papers on fire inside ballot boxes that close the poll when sealing the box because the flame has dropped inside, which is a bit of a difficult thing to ah cope with. Good news now, it's all plastic seals and doesn't work in quite that way any longer. So um there's lots of things that will go on on polling day that... um
00:10:34
Speaker
often are reported within the electoral community, but don't go any further simply because it can sometimes think what the hell's going on here in terms of
Post-Polling Day Work and Reflections
00:10:43
Speaker
some of the issues. But I think you talk to any electoral administrator, I'm sure when when I retire and publish that book of election election gaffes and ah issues, it will be quite a wide volume, I think, going into into bookshops on that one.
00:10:59
Speaker
I think people will be eagerly awaiting that one because it's a good story. But ah I do want to bring us on to after polling day, though, because people, as you said there, there's so much work before, there's so much work during it.
00:11:13
Speaker
But I don't think people realise that there's a lot of work to be done and after polling day as well. And so first and foremost, you know, casting our eyes back to the 2024 general election, you stated yourself that this was an election that was successfully delivered.
00:11:29
Speaker
But can you give an example of a British election that wasn't successfully delivered? And was there anything you learned from this? ah think you learn from every single election.
00:11:40
Speaker
There's no... personally have the view that there's no such thing as the perfect election. There will always be something that you can improve on. Equally, it's often the case that you you you beat yourself up when you've actually delivered under extreme circumstances.
00:11:55
Speaker
The 2024 election was delivered... um despite the election timetables that were in place, despite the fact the pressure was on in a very constrained period, despite the fact the teams who were delivering it, the core teams were exhausted having come out of the local elections only the month before.
00:12:12
Speaker
And that, you know, the testament to everybody, including candidates, including the print industry, including Royal Mail, did remarkably well to deliver that. And I think that's where the success has come.
00:12:22
Speaker
Where an election has not been successfully delivered, I don't think there's any general election. Well, I think I'd go further than that. I do not believe a general election cannot be so successfully delivered simply because if there's 650 seats, if 25 individual seats fail, there's still a parliament.
00:12:42
Speaker
There's still the fact that those 25 areas are the ones that have failed, not the system as a whole, which is a difficult thing to to correlate because ultimately the same system is being used. Some may have got through with the skin of their teeth and others. We We saw a lot of things around postal voting, there were you know ah where there were areas of allegedly postal votes not being delivered, whether that's true or not it's difficult to to marry up. but at the end of the day, every step was taken to ensure as many people could vote as possible, despite the challenges that were in place. um Where you'll see failure is the way there is a challenge to the election.
00:13:18
Speaker
um And it's not often you see um election petitions because the bar to submit a petition is very high but there will be instances you'll see where there have been investigations undertaken post the election where there have been errors in the the yeah or there could be improvements rather than there being errors in terms of the elections delivery and often that comes down to making sure that the elections call team um and the elections across the board are properly resourced properly
00:13:49
Speaker
understood the complexities of what we're talking about and often that is the case on those but you'll see that regularly um where it hasn't affected the outcome necessarily adversely but it could have been delivered better and subsequently is delivered better you learn from every single poll that takes place um so what would you say is the most challenging election you've worked on and why I think the most challenging election, did be was moons ago, um but i think where you have a parliamentary general election combined with a local government election, um and in some areas there will obviously parish elections as well taking place, the complexity of dealing with several polls on the same day creates um challenge because you're dealing with separate franchises, you're dealing with separate
00:14:46
Speaker
um processes throughout, even though the majority of what we do will be the same.
Complexity of Concurrent Elections
00:14:50
Speaker
um I think when it comes to it, the um the biggest risk in an election is tiredness because people coming into it, the same people who will be the ones giving the technical advice to a returning officer are the same ones who've been doing those 14, 15 hour days for that six week, if not longer period are going through.
00:15:08
Speaker
So I certainly found that hard on a couple of elections where those combinations taking place. It's a different set of challenges this time around because it's still, it's a regional set of elections effectively. So there will be different working practices and the county return offices in particular have very little influence over what takes place in each of the districts.
00:15:28
Speaker
um And that's a challenge of a different type. So so yeah, everyone creates challenge. It's just making sure that you' you the teams are focused on producing the accurate and trusted result at the end of the day. That's all that can be done.
00:15:45
Speaker
Well, the discussions will continue in a second. And before we get into the future of elections, we're going to take a quick break. Stay with us and we'll be back in just a moment.
00:16:01
Speaker
Democracy volunteers exist to improve elections within the UK and around the world. We have observed elections in countries in Europe and North America. We are non-partisan and observe them to improve elections by reporting independently on our findings to those that legislate for them, oversee them and administer them.
00:16:22
Speaker
We do not receive any funding from government. If you want to find out more about the work of Democracy Volunteers, go to our website at democracyvolunteers.org.
00:16:39
Speaker
So welcome back, and you're listening to the Observations podcast, where today we're in conversation with Peter Stanion from the Association of Electoral Administrators, who we've been talking about how elections are run.
Postal Voting Concerns and Reforms
00:16:53
Speaker
But now we're going to focus on the future and bringing it to the work at the AEA directly. um You stated that we believe that postal voting is the biggest threat to the safe and secure delivery of any election.
00:17:10
Speaker
Why is this? Well, I think as soon as you a ballot paper leaves the possession of the controlled environment of the returning officer, risk is brought into the process. This just absentee balloting ah generally is is is part of that process.
00:17:27
Speaker
The issues that we've got with postal voting coming up, um there are good measures in place. they they' be say it's not It's a movable face and has been since postal voting on demand came into being. Obviously now even the application process has been tightened with the requirement for national insurance number to be provided as well for additional checks. So in terms of the system that's in place, it it says It's as secure as it can be at this moment. or That's not to say it could not change again in the future.
00:17:56
Speaker
But you are so reliant on so many different parts of the process. um Absentee balloting in this way, you want the postal votes out as soon as possible. Won't apply the elections on the 1st of May, ah but overseas electors receiving a ballot paper in Australia and back to the UK for parliamentary election is always... um an interesting conundrum. Will it get there and back in time, for example?
00:18:18
Speaker
So is that the best route for for that sort of voting? It's in the hands of the printers to reduce them early. is in the hands of then Royal Mail, delivery provider, and back into the returning officer's office.
00:18:29
Speaker
You are reliant so much on other parties involved in the election itself. And things such as the handling of postal ballot papers now, where there's a requirement for the person returning a postal vote to a polling station or to the council officers,
00:18:44
Speaker
That's now a slower process because the the paperwork needs to be completed. So um even one of the simple routes of just drop it back into the council offices is no longer um as simple as it used to be. So um we don't know what's going to be happening with the changes to Royal Mail.
00:19:01
Speaker
Obviously, they're going through their reorganisation now. The universal mail will remain, but what will be the outcome when it comes to things such as postal votes as part of the new delivery structure?
00:19:12
Speaker
they're all yeah They will do what we have absolute confidence in raw mail to do all that they can, but the environment is changing consistently. So it's a quite interesting conundrum that we're in, where postal voting was seen, certainly when it first came in on demand, as the anathema two or the the resolution to turnout now there's a chance that it's not quite what it wants once was.
00:19:35
Speaker
Hence, lots of things in our blueprint were saying, let's look at the whole system, about accessibility to the system, rather than relying on what are tried and trusted ways of doing things going forward. They may be right, but are they right in in today's environments going forwards?
00:19:51
Speaker
And, you know, with all these issues around postal voting, as you've described, there even potential influence of family members or others at home. Should we get rid of postal voting?
00:20:02
Speaker
And what would be a better system to replace it?
00:20:07
Speaker
I don't think we would ever advocate for getting rid of postal voting. It's been there since the end of the First World War. um It's been there for a long time. It's an option. There's a ah good option for many, many voters.
00:20:20
Speaker
um doesn't mean to say it should be the only option. um ah think where we as an organisation are keen to see the debate, and we don't have the answers, we just want the debate around things around early voting, things about um why do we need as many polling stations as we've got? Should we not have voting hubs where actually lots of the challenges now are around yeah as assisting voters to actually cast their ballot?
00:20:46
Speaker
you know and you know Should we not have the expertise more constrained in certain areas Should we have weekend voting? should it's It's almost like ah a um ah kaleidoscope of options for the individual voters themselves.
00:21:00
Speaker
At the moment, we have polling stations or we have, we're obviously involved in proxy voting in that, or we have postal voting. They are the only two options available. Neither of those is wrong.
00:21:12
Speaker
I think what would debate that needs to be had is are there also things either to add on to or to replace with a better system for the 21st century in terms of where where we're going.
00:21:24
Speaker
adam For that reason, we wouldn't advocate electronic voting at this stage. That might be an option. Overseas electors might find that as an option, but that debate needs to be had to determine whether one, it's safe and secure, and two, whether it provides a better option than what's available already.
00:21:40
Speaker
In February 2025, your organisation released report, New Blueprint for a Modern Electoral Landscape, How to Bring Resilience and Capacity to UK Democracy.
00:21:52
Speaker
You began the report by reiterating the issues highlighted from the 2021 report that rather than supporting the electoral process, an ever-increasing collection of acts and secondary legislation too often works against its effective delivery.
00:22:08
Speaker
Elections are often delivered in spite of rather than because of the fragmented and out to outdated legislative framework. Could you explain more about your reasons behind this, Peter?
00:22:22
Speaker
ah so The simple answer is referred to again in the blueprint. um id I'd certainly recommend the listeners ah try trying to so have a look at the actual high level summaries in that as a minimum.
00:22:34
Speaker
But the legislation itself, 1872 ballot act and before, um ah they always, They've always joked that Queen Victoria would recognise what's going on in the electoral process today because it's 80%, 90% of what was delivered way back when. And it's worked. It stood the test of time.
00:22:55
Speaker
But things such as if we take a look over the recent the history of my career, the electoral register is now no longer a fixed document. It's updated and can technically be updated until close a poll on polling day.
00:23:09
Speaker
You've got, um rather at the we mentioned postal voting, postal voting on demand. It used to be a reason, it's now been grafted onto that. Individual electoral registration has been grafted on where used to be household registration.
00:23:22
Speaker
You've got things such as the the need to do the checks. Your voter ID has been grafted on more recently. And so there's lots of things that are on the bedrock of what we have as ah as a system. The electoral register is obviously the document that we need to make sure is accurate going in.
00:23:36
Speaker
When I first started in the in the industry all those years ago, ah six months of my year was electoral registration, six months was elections. That is no longer the case. It's 24-7 electoral registration with the elections also being delivered through that process. So things such as the electoral timetable, you know, and one of the things that things like the postal voting deadline, we've argued some should come sooner in the timetable to allow for them to be printed and sent out to give, if we take the extreme example I gave earlier, an elector in Australia a better chance of being able to vote by post than they can at the moment with the fixed dates that are within the timetables themselves. um There was some talk three or four years ago about restricting the parliamentary timetable back to 17 working days, which was successfully rebuffed.
00:24:26
Speaker
because quite simply there's no way you could deliver election 17 working days with all the the factors that I've talked about. So the system's you know creaking, the system is delivered, it's delivered successfully because of the you know the fact that people trust the actual, the the electoral commission's report showing that trusting the system still, but that does not mean that it can continue to be grafted onto going forwards.
Recommendations and Reforms in Electoral System
00:24:51
Speaker
um Law commissions made their recommendations, must be 10 years ago, to actually consolidate electoral legislation. That's not been done, but it's still been crying out for, one, modernisation of language, two, an understanding that technology plays a big part now in the delivery of elections, and three, just make it slightly simpler to understand what the process actually is.
00:25:13
Speaker
So it's really where we've got to now, and the reason for that blueprint um is really to bring us back to understanding that the core systems are strong, but the more you begin to graft onto it again, unintended consequences will take place and something potentially goes wrong down the line in that way and I'm trying desperately not to use emotive language because the the core of professionals in the electoral industry are working their socks off to make sure that the the the trust in the system, the delivery is is is good and the general election last year proved is possible albeit at significant personal cost to those individuals.
00:25:54
Speaker
There are 57 recommendations in the 2025 report and in 2024 the organisation wrote to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to highlight areas of change that you wish.
00:26:06
Speaker
Was there a positive response there and do you feel that there are positive changes that are going to be brought about in the future? ah think testament to ah the government and and the officials, they have taken the report positively.
00:26:22
Speaker
A number of the recommendations in there are technical changes. they might to to to To an election geek like me, they're massive. To the person outside of elections, ah they they they we have little effect.
00:26:34
Speaker
It's one of the big criticisms that we've we've had of governments, and it doesn't matter which colour, ah that you've got the big ticket um solutions that are being rolled out, but they're not addressing the minor little tinkerings that need to take place.
00:26:48
Speaker
For example, you can't replace a postal ballot paper until or four days before the poll. which sounds slightly crazy when you might have issued that 12 or 13 days before the poll and someone might be going away. So they're sort of geeky electoral bits that we're talking about. The majority will be be along that line.
00:27:04
Speaker
The government don't agree with some of the recommendations that we've made. I'm not in that place yet. But one of the things that we have seen very positively is the recognition that there needs to be the review and that's been taking place of the more geeky bits that actually may well mean that there are slight adjustments made as part of any bill that the government bring forwards to deal with their manifesto commitments ah whenever that whenever that hits its
Voter ID and Electoral System Review
00:27:34
Speaker
parliament in that way. So ah in summary, yeah, it's been it been positive.
00:27:39
Speaker
Proof is now in the pudding about delivery. One of the areas that the AEA has highlighted issues with as well is voter ID at elections.
00:27:50
Speaker
Has it not made elections safer? It's not for me to come up with it made it safer. what What it's done is introduce another layer of technical requirements to polling stations.
00:28:03
Speaker
It's a judgment call by that presiding officer in the polling station as to whether the ID you show is a fair decision ah reflection of the individual who is meant to be. um And generally speaking, it's worked really well. And in in terms of the the technical, the administrative delivery of it, it's worked very well.
00:28:20
Speaker
What we are concerned about is there are, I think, if you have to correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe believe there's now 24 separate forms of ID that can be accepted in the polling station um with the with the introduction now of the Veterans ID card, which I think is welcome.
00:28:38
Speaker
ah that list is 24 now is complicated it enough. If we add more and more on, all you're doing is adding the the chance of there being greater um confusion in stations as to whether a document that is not regularly seen is actually over a document that's there.
00:28:56
Speaker
That's where we countenance degree of let's just be sensible to make sure that we've got, giving the staff a fair chance in stations is the brute reality. and We know from Electoral Commission um research, the majority of ID that's been used has been passports, drivers licences and ah bus passes.
00:29:15
Speaker
um We're worried about the other 21 forms that um could be added to going forward. That's not say it's a negative, it's just let's let's be realistic about what is the solution going forwards.
00:29:28
Speaker
So the penultimate question for you, Peter, um if there's any one thing that you'd do to change to elections to make them better, what would it be and why?
00:29:41
Speaker
um Some of your listeners will have heard me say this before, but the one thing I would do, we've got a very good system that's worked for a long time and has stood up to an awful lot of body blows, I think, it if I'm being emotive of my language.
00:29:57
Speaker
I personally, we as an association believe it's gone beyond the Law Commission now. We believe we need to stand back and actually look with a very analytical scientific eye as to what we want as our electoral system going forwards. Not to throw the baby out with bath water to quote the the phrase.
00:30:17
Speaker
But ultimately, can we hand on heart, say, the electoral system that we've got at the moment is really what we want going forward. So that will be the questions around how do we cast our ballot? What should the electoral registration system look like?
00:30:32
Speaker
What should the franchise look like? What should the the voting process look like going forward? But I do firmly, I think I speak on behalf of of my colleagues in the association, firmly believe that debate should be done outside of the political spectrum to allow for it to be a less of a party political argument. There will always be that involved.
00:30:51
Speaker
But let's look at this in terms of a commission or ah you know ah effectively an independent review to present a system that actually can stand up to the next 100 years of democracy in the UK.
00:31:05
Speaker
And the final question to you, Peter, do you try and post photos for hashtag dogs at polling stations? um The advice that's always given is to do exactly that.
00:31:19
Speaker
At the end of the day, um when it comes to it, what we're trying to do is to make elections accessible um to all. And I mean that widest sense. um And often, you know, um I think hashtags dogs at polling stations is quite antiquated now.
00:31:35
Speaker
I'd rather look at things such as horses, cats, unicorns, whatever it might well be, to see what else is going on in terms of stations themselves. And going back to your earlier question with regards to what goes on in stations, there have been some fantastic photos posted of horses' heads appearing through the door of a yeah a polling station.
00:31:54
Speaker
And that just adds to the fact that this is for everybody. it's not um you know It is a ah you know a hard bureaucratic system that we work to for very good reasons, that this becomes to humanise It's like to say, well, actually anybody can see the softer side of the of the process itself. so So, yes, please hashtag everything you want to, um but as long as it adds to the, it does it doesn't detract from the the seriousness of what's being done in those behind those doors and in the voting booths themselves.
00:32:25
Speaker
I mean, at a risk of showing bias any way, which way, what animal would be your preference to be a top of the hashtag list? Oh, definitely a unicorn. It's got to be a unicorn without shadow of it doubt. So it's a,
00:32:38
Speaker
But no so ah dad I ah don't mind. I don't honestly don't mind because i don't want to to upset any ah any people who've got a certain trait themselves with for an animal. ever Ever keeping the non-biased there, Peter. Wonderful answers.
00:32:53
Speaker
But that is the podcast for today. And that's how elections are run. And we have discussed how they can improve and maybe what we might expect to see in the future. We will see.
00:33:04
Speaker
And also we eagerly await Peter's book that he mentioned as well, if he brings one out ah very soon. But I'd like to thank you very much, Peter, for fitting us into your very bishop busy schedule at this time of year My pleasure.
00:33:18
Speaker
Absolute pleasure. And thanks for listening to the Observations podcast. I'm Jason McKenna and goodbye.
00:33:35
Speaker
The Observations podcast has been brought to you by Democracy Volunteers, the UK's leading election observation group. Democracy Volunteers is non-partisan and does not necessarily share the opinions of participants in the podcast.
00:33:49
Speaker
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