South Lakeland and Eden ditch overnight election counts (From The Westmorland Gazette)

South Lakeland and Eden ditch overnight election counts

7:20am Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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VOTERS in South Lakeland and Eden will have to wait an extra 10 hours after the General Election to find out who they have elected to represent them as MPs.

In a radical departure from tradition, South Lakeland and Eden district councils have both decided to delay counting votes until the morning after the poll.

The authorities’ decision is likely to put them at odds with MPs who are demanding night-time counts.

SLDC is responsible for counting the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency, which this year is one of the marginal seats the Conservatives have to win if they are to form the next government.

So far 82 constituencies (12.6%) have declared their intention to have a next-day count if polling day is May 6.

South Lakeland’s returning officer, Debbie Storr, who made the decision, said: “This time there is the added effect of postal votes, which now can be handed in at polling stations on election day.

"Clearly the verifying process for these is going to add to the delay. This is one of the reasons why I am not in support of a count on the night.”

Ms Storr admitted that the cost of a night-time count was a factor in the decision, but not the most significant one.

She said nearly 300 people still needed to be employed to man the polling stations and others would be needed to transport the ballot boxes to Lakes Leisure Kendal for the count .

Eden District Council’s returning officer, Kevin Douglas said: “The Penrith and Borders constituency covers a large geographical area, so we can have to wait for postal votes to come in and many of our key staff will have already worked a long period of time and so it is impractical to ask them to work overnight on the Thursday.”

The decision about when to count is the returning officer’s alone and requires no authority from council or Government.

A bid by MPs to force a night count must become law before the election if councils will be forced to count on election night.