Poor experience from the polling station relating to the general Election

[trinidad]

I escorted a relative on polling day to vote at the general election. She has a disability. The polling sttaion is a little out of the area (The gallery - along peckham Road SE5 - next to the university).

The relative has a physical disability, and found the the walk from the street into the polling station an ordeal, especially as the polling station was was at the back of the gallery, via the cafe.

Once we finally arrived at the polling station, we noticed one of the polling clarks wearing a coat which related to a political party. The rules are crystal clear with appropriate dressed with polling staff, in that ONLY BLACK OR WHITE should be displayed. We challenged the polling clark, and she replied "We were just told to wear something comfortable" seem like a training issue to me. This was approx 1:30pm, so the polls had been opened at this time for over six hours at this point.

We brought it to the attention of the Proceeding Officer, who was also close in wearing a top relating to a political party. She did not seem interested at all, and seem to be more interested in me not joining my family member in the booth.

The next thing I whitness was the PO standing between the family member and myself. The PO did not even want me to talk to the family member.

I completely get protecting the secret voting, but the PO did seem stressed, it was not a good experience. When asked what I was meant to do, the PO asked me to leave the polling station.

It was a very stressful experience, i think we will choose to vote by post next time.

I did contact electoral services. As you can imagine, they were busy on the day, when i finally got through, I was informed I would be connected to a officer from electoral services but this lead to the call being disconnected. I called back, spoke to the call centre again, an electoral officer and then a senior electoral officer.

I told them about the dress code of there staff, and left out the behavior of the PO.

Not a happy experience :(

[Sue]

I'm sorry about your bad experience, but when you say wearing clothes of a colour relating to a political party, what do you mean?

Theresa May has been wearing red a lot lately, but I guess she wasn't trying to get people to vote Labour!

[trinidad]

This is from the electoral commission:

Standards of appearance

The atmosphere in the polling station should be

business-like and friendly, and polling station

staff should dress accordingly. However, staff

will be present at the polling station all day and

should also consider their personal comfort.

Remember that polling station staff are

representatives of the Local Returning Officer

and should act impartially at all times. Any

badges, slogans, or colours that might bring the

impartiality of the polling station staff into

question must not be worn.

[Sue]

What colour/s were they wearing?

[red devil]

I voted in the Peckham Rye children's playroom hut, it was a riot of colour...:)

[singalto]

A postal vote for your relative sounds like the best solution. The Heber school people were great.

[jaywalker]

Sounds like the official did their job pretty accurately. You should not be anywhere near your relative when they are about to vote.