1. The following presentation was used by the CCO to brief the designated campaigners and can be used as the basis for any local briefings

2. EU Referendum – Chief Counting Officer briefing for registered campaigners
April 2016

3. Referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union 23 June 2016
This is one of the most significant polls of recent years - the level of public interest in the referendum is likely to be very high. This will manifest itself in different ways – from a higher turnout than seen at recent elections to more intense scrutiny by both the established media and social media. As a result, there will be higher levels of attention on all those taking part in the referendum than there has ever previously been.
As Chief Counting Officer, I wanted to take the opportunity to brief you on my arrangements for the administration of the referendum.
Before we start with the detail of running of the referendum itself I’d just like to quickly cover the issue of other polls being held on the same day as the referendum. Clearly there are no polls scheduled for the day; however there is always the possibility for by-elections to be called in this period. I would like to make clear that Parliament has not legislated for any poll to be combined with the poll at the referendum on 23 June. Although this does not mean that a by-election cannot take place on the same day, it does mean that the usual practices followed at combined polls and established in legislation, such as ‘shared’ polling stations, would not be in place. Separate polling stations and equipment would need to be established for each poll although, if space allowed, they could be located in the same building. This gives rise to potentially significant administrative challenges but more fundamentally, also increases risk of voter confusion.
It is our view that no Parliamentary or Local Government by-elections should be held on 23 June.
This view has been made very clear to all Counting Officers and Returning Officers and I have asked them to make me aware immediately should they become aware that a political party seeks to hold a by-election on the same day as the referendum.

4. Management framework for the referendum
Referendums have a different management and accountability structure to elections:
Chief Counting Officer - Jenny Watson
Deputy Chief Counting Officer – Andrew Scallan
Regional Counting Officers
Counting Officers
Notes:
Legislation provides that as the Chair of the Electoral Commission I will be the Chief Counting Officer (CCO) at the referendum, with responsibility for the overall conduct of the referendum and for certifying the result.
As CCO, I have appointed Andrew Scallan, the Commission’s Director of Electoral Administration, as Deputy Chief Counting Officer to support me with carrying out my role and to take specific responsibility for the management of the result collation process.
The EU Referendum Act 2015 allows the CCO to appoint a Regional Counting Officer (RCO) for each electoral region in Great Britain which I have done and we have met regularly to make key decisions about the management of the poll. The RCO is responsible for the conduct of the poll in their electoral region and for submitting to me a regional count total, comprised of the totals for each of the voting areas in their electoral region.
Counting Officers are responsible for administering the referendum in each of the 382 voting areas of the UK and Gibraltar. In Great Britain, the 380 voting areas are all local authority areas and the Counting Officer for each is the same person as has been appointed local government Returning Officer for that area. Gibraltar is also a voting area, which for the purposes of the administration of the poll falls within the South West of England electoral region. In Northern Ireland, the Chief Electoral Officer is the Counting Officer for the whole of Northern Ireland.

5. Role of the Chief Counting Officer
Responsible for overall conduct of the referendum and certifying the result
Power of direction over COs and RCOs in relation to the delivery of their functions, including taking specified steps to prepare and providing information
Provision of guidance to support COs with preparing for and delivering the poll
CCO’s role distinct from Electoral Commission role
As CCO I am responsible for the overall conduct of the referendum and certifying the overall result which I expect to declare in Manchester Town Hall on 24 June.
The legislation provides me with a power of direction over RCOs and Counting Officers. In issuing directions I have built on the experiences of the Scottish referendum and have focused on those areas where I consider consistency to be essential in order to achieve the overall objective of ensuring confidence in the result, based on an accessible, consistent and efficient electoral process operated to the highest standards of integrity. We’ll talk more about the scope of the directions in a moment.
I have also provided guidance for Counting Officers on preparing for and delivering the poll, which largely mirrors that the Commission normally produces for elections but which reflects the directions I have issued and the specific circumstances of the referendum.
There is a distinction between those things which I am personally responsible for as CCO and those for which the Commission is responsible for. For example, the Commission has the responsibility for registering organisations or individuals who want to campaign in the referendum, considering and approving applications for designation as the lead campaign group for each referendum outcome and making grant payments to the approved designated organisations. The Commission will also be carrying out public awareness activity in the lead up to the referendum, encouraging voter registration and providing information to the public to help them to understand how to vote in the referendum.

6. Directions Notice of referendum Ballot papers Polling stations
Poll card delivery dates
Postal vote despatch and delivery dates for UK and overseas electors
Use of international business response licenses for overseas postal votes
Royal Mail sweeps
Timing of count
Method of verification and count
Monitoring the performance of Counting Officers
Directions
Decisions on which directions to issue were taken in close consultation with the RCOs and were made following a period of consultation in autumn The directions were confirmed to Counting Officers in November 2015 to give them early clarity and to support them in taking forward preparations for the delivery of the poll.
The 10 areas set out on the slide are those where we have determined that consistency will be essential in order to ensure the delivery of a result that can command confidence.
For example, to ensure that postal voters have as much time as possible to receive, complete and return their postal votes, the CCO has directed that postal votes are sent to overseas electors within a specified window (23 – 27 May) and that postal votes are received by electors within the UK between 27 May and 3 June. To help with the return of completed postal ballot packs by electors, the CCO has directed that international business response licences are included on postal vote return envelopes for those packs sent outside of the UK, and has also directed that sweeps of Royal Mail sorting offices are carried out late on polling day to pick up any postal votes that are still in the system and ensure they are returned to the relevant Counting Officer in time for inclusion in the count.
We’ll come back to the directions on the verification and counting of votes later.

7. Campaigners’ entitlements
Registered campaigners are entitled to:
Access to the electoral register and lists of absent voters
Can only be used to help your campaign and to check the permissibility of donations
Attendance at key referendum proceedings
Postal vote openings
Polling stations
Count
There are some entitlements that all registered campaigners are entitled to receive and others that are only afforded to the designated lead campaigners. For example, designated lead campaigners are entitled to use publicly funded rooms for meetings and send information to voters free of charge.
All registered campaigners at the referendum are entitled to a free copy of the full electoral registers and the lists of absent voters which show those electors who are registered to vote by post or proxy. The registers and lists are maintained and held locally by the Electoral Registration Officer. Copies of the register and list of absent voters can be obtained from the relevant Electoral Registration Officer, and you must make your request to them in writing. The Electoral Registration Officer will provide you with a form you can use for this purpose or you can download a copy from our website.
The registers and absent voters’ lists contain electors’ personal data and so their use is carefully controlled:
The registers and lists of absent voters must only be used to help your campaign and to check the permissibility of donations.
You must not use the register for any other purpose or pass copies on to anyone outside the campaign (except for certain data processing companies).
As a registered campaigner you are also entitled to appoint referendum agents. Each referendum campaigner may appoint one referendum agent for each voting area who, in turn, can appoint other agents to observe the opening of postal votes, the poll and the count. It is the ‘responsible person’ for the campaigner, or a person authorised in writing by them, who can make the appointment of the referendum agent by delivering a notice of their appointment to the relevant Counting Officer by not later than 12 noon on 31 May. If you do not notify the Counting Officer of the appointment by this time, your campaigning organisation will not be able to appoint agents to attend postal vote opening sessions, polling stations and the verification and counting of votes on your behalf.

8. Postal voting Code of conduct for campaigners
Absent vote applications
Postal ballot packs
Attendance at postal vote opening sessions
Appointment of postal voting agents
Importance of maintaining secrecy
While the majority of electors still vote in polling stations, electors in Great Britain can choose to vote by post if they wish, and electors in Northern Ireland are able to apply to vote by post if they are unable to vote in person at their polling station on polling day. Around 15% of electors in Great Britain currently choose to vote by post .
For interest in terms of regional breakdown, at the 2015 parliamentary election this ranged from 26% in the North East to 13% in the West Midlands. This is reflected in the fact that in 2015, Sunderland’s constituencies had an average postal vote take-up of above 40% which was the highest in the country whereas Birmingham’s constituencies had an average of 9% which was the lowest. In Northern Ireland, where the rules determining entitlement to a postal vote are much stricter than in the rest of the UK, only 1.4% of the electorate chose to vote by post in 2015.
If you choose to encourage your supporters to apply for a postal vote, you can use the Commission’s forms, which are available on If you are going to produce your own forms, you should make sure that they conform fully with the requirements of electoral law in order to ensure that any applications made on them can be accepted. If you are thinking of producing your own forms, we would be happy to review whatever you produce to mitigate the risk of electors being inadvertently disenfranchised through forms that do not meet the legal requirements.
We have developed a Code of Conduct for campaigners in Great Britain which sets out what is, and is not, considered acceptable behaviour at polling stations and in the community during the lead-up to polling day. The code of conduct is a non-statutory agreement and was developed following open consultation.
As a campaigner in the referendum, you should follow the Code of conduct and this will help you to avoid situations where your honesty or integrity or those of your supporters could be questioned.
The Code of conduct contains a number of points specifically relating to postal voting:
Ensure the relevant ERO’s address is included as the preferred address for the return of forms
If you are collecting application forms – do not hold on to them. Ensure unaltered applications are sent to the relevant ERO within two working days
Make sure electors understand implications of applying for an absent vote
Do not encourage postal ballot pack redirection
Do not encourage electors to appoint a campaigner as proxy
Never touch anybody else’s postal ballot paper
Never observe electors completing their postal vote
Never handle or take any completed ballot paper or postal ballot packs from voters
If you are concerned that electoral fraud may have been committed, whether in relation to postal voting or any other aspect of the referendum process, you should first speak to the Electoral Registration Officer or the relevant Counting Officer. They may be able to explain whether or not electoral fraud has been committed, and can refer your concerns to the police if necessary. They can also provide you with the details of the police contact for the relevant police force so that you can report the allegation yourself. If you have evidence that an electoral offence has been committed you should contact the police immediately, using the 101 non-emergency number unless there is a crime in progress. Every police force has a dedicated Single Point of Contact Officer who will be able to provide advice to ensure that your allegations are properly investigated. You should be prepared to give them a statement and substantiate your allegation.
Once postal votes have been completed and sent back by electors, the Counting Officer will open these at one of a number of sessions that will be scheduled in the weeks leading up to polling day and then on polling day itself. Your referendum agent can appoint postal voting agents to observe the opening of postal votes and the checking of signatures and dates of birth provided on postal voting statements. To appoint a postal voting agent, your referendum agent must give the Counting Officer notice by the time fixed for the start of the opening session that they want the postal voting agent to attend. The Counting Officer will give each referendum agent at least 48 hours’ notice ahead of any opening session
At postal vote opening sessions, postal ballot packs returned by postal voters are opened and checked to ensure that the signatures and dates of births of voters provided on the completed postal voting statements match those held on file and previously provided by the voter.
Ballot papers will be kept face down throughout a postal vote opening session. Anyone attending an opening session must not attempt to see how individual ballot papers have been marked. It follows therefore that keeping a tally of how ballot papers have been marked is not allowed. Anyone attending a postal vote opening must not attempt to look at identifying marks or numbers on ballot papers, disclose how any particular ballot paper has been marked or pass on any such information gained from the session.
 Can we insert the range here? By la and by region, and including NI

9. Polling day Polling stations open from 7am to 10pm
Campaigning outside polling stations
You are allowed to put your messages to voters on polling day, including in public spaces outside polling places BUT
Keep access to polling places and the pavements around polling places clear to allow voters to enter
Comply with the requests of polling station staff
Eligible electors in the polling station or in a queue outside the polling station at 10pm are entitled to vote. Postal votes can be handed into polling stations within the voting area or delivered to the elections office until 10pm
In order to ensure that voters can receive a consistently high-quality service regardless of where they are voting and are able to vote easily and without delay, the CCO has directed COs on the numbers of electors that can be allocated to each polling station and the staffing ratios that must be followed as a minimum.
Referendum agents can appoint polling agents to observe the proceedings inside polling stations. For the appointment to be valid, the Counting Officer must be notified in writing of their appointment by not later than 16 June. Similarly to postal vote openings, agents must maintain the secrecy of the ballot.
The Code of conduct for campaigners sets out what is, and is not, considered acceptable behaviour at polling stations, and you should ensure that this is followed by your supporters.
The Code is clear that campaigners should be allowed to put their messages to voters on polling day, including in public spaces outside polling places. Polling station staff and police officers should not seek to discourage or remove campaigners who are otherwise peacefully communicating with voters, as long as they are not within or impeding access to the grounds of the polling place. You should be careful, however, to ensure that your approach is proportionate and should recognise that groups of supporters may be perceived as intimidating by voters.
Campaigners should keep access to polling places and the pavements around polling places clear to allow voters to enter. The Presiding Officer is responsible for maintaining order in the polling place, and you may be asked to move by polling station staff or police officers if you are impeding access by voters to a polling place.
You should also make sure that any tellers working for you follow our ‘tellers do's and don'ts’, which is available on our website, along with any supplementary guidance issued by individual Counting Officers. For example, while tellers can ask voters for information as they enter or leave the polling place, they should not impede, instruct or intimidate voters on their way into or out of the polling place.
These are the same principles as apply for campaigning at an election, and so the same arrangements would apply at the 5 May scheduled elections or any by-elections before the referendum.

10. Verification and count
Verification and counting of votes to start at 10pm
Attendance at the count
Key stages in the process
Verification
Counting
Adjudication of doubtful ballot papers
Provisional local totals
Recounts
May be requested by designated counting agent or referendum agent
No provision for a ’regional’ or ‘national’ recount
The votes at the referendum will be counted locally by each of the 382 Counting Officers across the UK and Gibraltar. The exact approach to managing the verification and count in each local area will be determined by the Counting Officer, taking account of their own particular circumstances and experience, but the CCO has directed that in all cases the count should be broken down into a number of self-contained ‘areas’ smaller than the voting area, with the totals for each of these ‘areas’ aggregated into a single total for the voting area, as this is an effective way of managing the process and helps to produce accurate results with a clear audit trail, with any issues more easily identified and resolved..
The CCO has directed that the count process begin immediately after the close of poll at 10pm on Thursday 23 June and continue throughout the night. In Gibraltar, the count will start at 11pm (10pm UK time).
The legislation sets out who is entitled to attend the verification and counting of votes. Referendum agents can appoint counting agents to observe the verification and counting processes. The Counting Officer must be notified in writing of the appointment of any counting agents by not later than 16 June. All referendum agents in the voting area will be allowed to appoint the same number of counting agents. As part of the appointment process, the referendum agent can designate one of their counting agents as being able to request a recount.
At the close of poll, sealed ballot boxes and any postal votes handed in to polling stations will be transported to the count venue for each of the 382 local counting areas.
Firstly, the number of ballot papers in each ballot box (but not the actual votes at this stage) will be counted, along with the number of unused and spoilt ballot papers. These figures will be reconciled with the ballot paper account to ensure that all ballot papers are accounted for and that the number received at the count matches the number that was expected. Once this verification process has been completed, the turnout for that voting area can be announced.
Once verification has been completed for the self-contained ‘area’, counting staff will start to sort and count the ballot papers.
Where ballot papers have not been marked in accordance with the instructions, they will need to be adjudicated by the Counting Officer or their staff. This process will be carried out in front of those agents in attendance at the count. Where the intention of the voter is clearly apparent, the vote can be accepted as valid and be counted. If it is not possible for the Counting Officer to ascertain the voter’s intention, the ballot paper is rejected and marked with the reason for the rejection. These are called ‘rejected’ votes. This process will be carried out in front of those agents in attendance at the count, who will have the opportunity to object to the rejection of any ballot paper, although the Counting Officer’s decision on whether or not to allow a vote is final.
The CCO has developed guidance on how to deal with ‘doubtful’ ballot papers which will be provided to all Counting Officers so that there is a consistent approach to dealing with these across the whole of the UK and Gibraltar.
Once all of the valid votes and any rejected votes have been added together and checked against the total number of ballot papers from the verification stage, the Counting Officer will share the provisional result with the agents that are present.
It is at this stage that the referendum agent or the counting agent specifically designated for this purpose may request a recount. It is at the Counting Officer’s discretion whether or not to conduct a recount, and they can refuse the request if they consider it to be unreasonable. In some cases, the Counting Officer may other an alternative to a full recount to provide assurance that the count has been properly conducted, such as the inspection of sorted bundles of ballot papers.
There is no provision for a regional or national recount. Recounts can only take place at voting area level. Once the local totals have been submitted to the RCO and approved, no recount can take place.

11. Collation and calculation of the result
Structure of the verification and count
Voting areas (Counting Officers)
Counting Officers count the votes for their area
Submit local total for the RCO to approve
Declare the local total
Regional count collation hubs (RCO)
RCO collates the local totals for the electoral region and submits regional total for the CCO to approve
Declare the regional total
National hub (Chief Counting Officer)
CCO calculates result from the regional totals and the local total for Northern Ireland
Declare the referendum result
The referendum will, obviously, produce a single result for the whole of the UK and Gibraltar, which will be calculated from the collation of the totals for each of the 382 voting areas. The CCO will use a secure electronic results collation system for the collation of the local and regional totals.
Once the provisional local total has been shared with the agents, the Counting Officer will relay the local total to their Regional Counting Officer who, if satisfied that it is accurate, will approve the figures and authorise the declaration of the local total. The Counting Officer will then proceed to declare their local total as soon as practicable after that. At this stage the local total is final and no recounts are possible.
The Regional Counting Officer will collate the local totals for all voting areas in their electoral region to produce a regional total. The RCO will relay the regional total to the CCO who, if satisfied that it is accurate, will approve the figures and authorise the declaration of the regional total. The RCO will then proceed to declare their local total as soon as practicable after that.
The CCO will collate the totals from the 11 electoral regions in Great Britain and the total for Northern Ireland. Once this has been completed, the CCO will be able to declare the result of the referendum .
As Jenny stated before, she will declare the result of the national referendum in Manchester Town Hall. This will hopefully take place in the early hours of the morning of Friday 24th June. She will have a small team, including myself, in the town hall whose job it is to collate the regional totals into the national result following the close of poll at 10pm on the 23rd.
As lead campaigners you are entitled to send representatives to the count event in Manchester and you will be contacted shortly and requested to submit the names and details of the people likely to be in attendance. An area within the count event building will be reserved for each of the lead campaign groups.

12. Any questions?