London Elects
London Elects is the independent team that organises the Mayor of London and the London Assembly elections. This includes everything from design and print of the ballot papers, managing the counting of votes, to delivering a public awareness campaign to tell Londoners about the election and how they can vote.
With elections every four years, the Mayor of London and London Assembly elections will take place on 3 May 2012. The previous election took place on 1 May 2008.
While part of the Greater London Authority (GLA), London Elects is politically impartial and operationally independent. It works directly for the Greater London Returning Officer (GLRO), and has a separate budget and reporting lines from other GLA.
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[edit] Greater London Returning Officer (GLRO)
The GLRO for the 2012 elections is John Bennett. As GLRO he has overall responsibility for delivering the elections and count for the Mayor and Assembly elections. On Friday 4 May he will collate the votes from across London for the Mayoral and London-wide Assembly Members election. He will announce the result of these contests from City Hall. The Constituency London Assembly Members election results are announced by Constituency Returning Officers.
[edit] Operations
The operations team is responsible for the planning and coordination of all logistical aspects of the elections, and works closely with electoral services staff in all London's 32 boroughs and the City of London to do this. The team provides training and support for polling station staff and manages candidate nominations for the Mayoral election and the London-wide candidates for the London Assembly election. The operations team also organises arrangements for the count, and manages the contract with their supplier.
[edit] Communications
The communications team works to ensure that information is made available to voters, candidates and political parties, the media and other stakeholders in a straightforward and timely way.
Activities in the communications plan include:
- an advertising campaign
- the London Elects website - www.londonelects.org.uk
- PR activity, including briefings for journalists and events
- paper publications, including factsheets, staff training materials, and candidate information
- the statutory mayoral address booklet, comprising ‘mini-manifestos’ from mayoral candidates, delivered to all London’s 5.8m voters.
The communications team is also responsible for co-ordinating communications and media management during the counting of ballot papers and results announcement.
[edit] The elections budget
London Elects has a budget of £21m. This pays for:
- hiring and staffing over 4,000 polling stations on election day
- the count on 4 May 2012, including the e-counting technology and the count staff
- training all the staff working in the polling stations and at the count
- all the materials that are needed to put on the election, including the ballot papers, ballot boxes and signs in the polling stations
- the public advertising and communications campaign
- delivery of the Mayoral Address Booklet to every registered London voter before election day.
The majority of the budget comes from the GLA reserve – money is put aside by the GLA every year to pay for the elections.
[edit] History
Following the 1999 GLA Act, the first London Mayoral and London Assembly elections were held in 2000. These first elections were organised by the Government Office for London. Following a report into the running of this election, and continuing the transfer of powers to the new GLA, London Elects was established in 2003 at the request of the GLRO. The first election organised by the team was the 2004 London Mayoral, London Assembly and European election.
