Improving election counts: good moves from the Electoral Commission

Earlier this week I went to meet with the Electoral Commission to discuss their plans for encouraging better practice at election counts. Having spotted my views, they invited me in, thinking I might be interested in their plans – and kudos to the Electoral Commission for willing to talk in this way.

The plans are still in draft and subject to consultation, so I won’t go into details about them now, but the overall move is towards having a recommended set of count procedures and accompanying forms which are (a) a big improvement on the current situation, (b) produce more accurate counts via more cross-checking at intermediate stages and (c) provide more information to candidates and agents to both keep them informed and help them query matters which should be queried.

The news all sounded very positive. Fingers crossed…