Decision Maker: Head of Governance, People and Performance

Outcome: Recommendations Approved

Is Key Decision?: No

Is Callable In?: No

Date of Decision: November 14, 2023

Purpose: Digitisation within the poll station will aim to alleviate some of the issues facing Crawley Borough Council when managing the Poll. This will generate many additional benefits for Election staff and management, ultimately providing a better experience for the voter. Within Crawley Borough Council our poll stations use a very traditional, manual, paper-based process. This system has served us adequately but with the increasing demands from recent election bills, covid, challenges with staffing and increasing demands on the electoral system, change is imperative. Existing challenges include; staff recruitment, voter disengagement, poor visibility of election day progress, and increased risk of human error, accuracy of Ballot Paper Accounts, transparency with audits. This was compounded by the implementation of Voter ID and the workload and complexity of administering the poll stations will increase dramatically. Please note the digital aspect relates to the paperwork of the poll clerk & presiding officer and not how the public vote which will remain paper based.

Content: To Sign a 4yr contract with Modern Democracy Ltd for Modern Polling Digital Poll Clerk