The Local Authorities (Mayoral Elections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2002

Attendance at the count

40.—(1) The returning officer shall make arrangements for carrying out, as soon as practicable after the close of the poll, the counting of the votes cast at the election in the presence of the counting agents appointed for the purposes of the election; and he shall give to those agents notice in writing of the time and place—

(a) at which he will begin to count the votes; and

(b) at which he will begin any count of the second preference votes.

(2) No person other than—

(a) the returning officer and his clerks,

(b) the candidates and their husbands or wives,

(c) the election agents, and

(d) the counting agents,

may be present at the count, unless permitted by the returning officer to attend.

(3) A person not entitled to attend the count shall not be permitted to do so by the returning officer unless—

(a) he is satisfied that the efficient counting of the votes will not be impeded; and

(b) he has either consulted the election agents or thought it impracticable to do so.

(4) The returning officer shall give the counting agents all such reasonable facilities for overseeing the proceedings, and all such information with respect to them, as he can give them consistently with the orderly conduct of the proceedings and the discharge of his duties in connection with them.

(5) In particular, where the votes are counted by sorting the ballot papers according to the candidate for whom the vote is given and then counting the number of ballot papers for each candidate, the counting agents shall be entitled to satisfy themselves that the ballot papers are correctly sorted.