Working at a polling station

We employ staff to assist at polling stations across the borough. There are 107 polling station across the 18 borough wards. Please note polling hours are 7am to 10pm and polling station staff will need to arrive with enough time to set up the polling station.

You must be 18 or over to work at a polling station.

We contact all staff via an online portal called MEA. Staff create an account and can then access documentation relating to working on the elections. Each time a document is sent to your MEA account, you will be notified by email.

The main documents we will send are:

Availability letters: This is sent a few months prior to an election and responses to this letter are how we allocate staff to jobs. The letter will cover an overview of the election, which jobs are available and the rates of pay. Staff respond on their MEA account and select their preferred jobs. There is also a notes section which staff should add any information they wish to be taken into consideration – such as a specific polling station they would like to work at or a member of staff they would like to work with. For a May election, this is usually sent in February.

Job Request: After responding to your Availability letter, we will use that information to allocate staff to their preferred roles. Once you have been assigned a job, you will be sent a Job Request. This document confirms the job that has been offered to you and provides all the information you will need - such as location, colleagues, mileage forms.

If you are not assigned a job for the election, you will be put onto a reserve list and notified.

To be sent a link to create an MEA account, please email electoral.services@basingstoke.gov.uk

• Please put the title of your email: MEA Account Set Up
• Include the following information in your email: full name, home address and mobile number.

Once you have created your account, we would advise you to complete the rest of your profile with the required information.

Information will be sent to the email address you contacted us with.