May is the month of bank holiday weekends, our Jazz Festival, the infamous cheese rolling and also, every few years, elections.

Depending on the day you read this, it may be that you are gearing up to cast your vote or, perhaps, that the ballot box is already a distant memory.

As you can imagine, putting on an election is a mammoth task for our fantastic Elections Team here at Cheltenham Borough Council.

This time around they have had less time than usual to prepare, with the government initially postponing our election before deciding that it should go ahead after all, which has put extra pressure on our staff. The list of things to organise is seemingly endless.
There is a lot of training and preparation in advance of election day

Around 400 people are employed on a casual basis to undertake various election duties such as preparation of the ballot boxes, issuing postal votes, delivery of poll cards as well as essential jobs on the night of the vote count, acting as poll clerks, table supervisors and count assistants. All of these individuals require training and preparation for their roles, which is provided by our Electoral Services team.

All 53 polling stations in Cheltenham, as well as the Count Centre, must open (and close) on time, be stocked with the necessary equipment and have disability access made available for our voters. The team must also deal with any staffing issues on the day to make sure that each polling station has the right number of volunteers to help.

Stopping any election-related crime

Beyond the sheer scale of organising an election, there are other challenges to overcome as the team guides our residents through new legislation around voter ID and reapplication for postal votes. Behind the scenes, council officers liaise with the police and Electoral Commission about keeping people safe on election day and stopping any election-related crime.

So, I would like to thank our Electoral Services team for all the hard work that they have done to make sure we can all easily engage with our democracy in a safe way, because it is precious and we should not take it for granted.

Rowena Hay is the Leader of Cheltenham Borough Council and represents the Oakley Ward. She was first elected as a local councillor in 2002 and is passionate about our town. Her spare time is spent with family, including trips to the Isle of Wight, on her allotment and walking her dogs.