Working at elections

Have you ever thought about working at a polling station or helping to count the votes at an election? Our Elections Team is looking to recruit motivated and enthusiastic staff. We would love to hear from you if you're interested in becoming involved.

Working at a polling station

Polling station staff are responsible for making sure voting procedures are correctly followed. On election day, staff must have their polling station set up and ready to open for 7am, working through the day until after the polls close at 10pm.  

All staff employed to work at a polling station must attend a training session before taking up their appointment. The roles available are listed below:

Working at the count

Counting assistants count the votes cast at polling stations, together with any postal votes. Depending on the election, counting may take place straight after the polls close (10pm on polling day) or on the following day. 

Our election counts are usually held at the Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre. The roles available are listed below:

Politically impartial

If you are appointed to work, it is important you remain politically impartial when you are working at the election. This means you cannot publicly show your support for a particular political party or candidate in any way.

How to apply

Please read the descriptions of the jobs we have available and if you would like to apply, please complete the application form below and return it to the elections team at elections@westsuffolk.gov.uk 

Eligibility to work

You will need to visit West Suffolk House, Western Way, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3YU as we will need to see and copy your original UK passport or UK birth certificate or have sight of your passport and share code to enable us to check your right to work in the UK status for non-UK nationals. You will also be required to provide an original document showing your name and National Insurance number.  No offer of employment will be made without sight of these documents.  These documents are required under the Prevention of Illegal Working, Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006.

Information we'll hold about you

We will keep information about you for electoral recruitment purposes. To find out how we store your personal data, please read our privacy information.