Electoral departments postal votes 2021
Is your Electoral department team prepared for 2021?
How will UK COVID-19 measures affect electoral departments?
So far 2020 has been quite a year with COVID-19 making an impact on our everyday activities, and despite everyone’s best intentions, the social distancing and various lockdowns around the country seem likely to stick around for a while. While it seems most people have settled into the ‘new normal’ of home working, remote meetings and electronic document signing, what does this mean if people need to go out and vote?
People have been voting by post for some time, and since 2008 you haven’t had to prove you can’t attend in person on the day. Over the last two decades, voting by post has increased, and the signs are, this is a trend that’s likely to continue. With COVID-19 and potential lockdown, we may even have an entirely postal vote. At the very least, there will be people wishing to protect their health by staying indoors and making sure they cast their vote in advance.
What does this mean for electoral departments?
To the general public, very little would change, and voting in advance while avoiding queues and crowds would be an advantage, but for those working in electoral departments it’s a very different story. Election time is busy enough, but with increased postal votes it could mean extra work, longer hours, and having to carry out essential work in close contact with other workers.
Easier to vote, harder to manage the admin
To the advantages of voting by post are clear, but behind the scenes, the electoral department would have additional challenges to meet the demands of voters. Sending out application forms, ballot papers, reply envelopes, then dealing with the returning post, opening the mail, extracting and collating the paperwork ready for vote counting.
All of this would be an extremely daunting task if it had to be done by hand, but thanks to the time saving mailroom machines available, many of these functions can be automated. These machines not only speed up the process, but they add a level of security and error free management human hands cannot provide. With automation, you’ll need fewer personnel on hand, and allow more space for COVID-19 safety measures.
At every stage of the process IMS can help, with envelopes to fill and send, and machines to take the strain of managing them. Many of our standard envelope products are available for next day delivery, and we can provide special pre-printed envelopes with addresses, messages, and instructions on them. There are folder inserter machines capable of filling the envelope with multiple inserts, and electronic letter openers to cleanly open and extract the contents once they return.
Hire machines for short term needs
Because of the nature of elections, you may not need to have your letter opener or folder inserter all year round (although we have found that once you have them, you’ll wonder how you managed without), so we offer lease machines to help you out seasonally. With the public sector, this can be extremely useful as budgets can be tight and the investment to buy a machine outright may not be there. When you lease a machine, you get the same training and support as if you’d bought the machine. We deliver it, set it up, and when it’s time to end the contract we take it away again, simple as that.
This is something we have done for many businesses and councils, helping them cope with seasonal peaks and our customer service is well known. If you think we could help you out with mailroom machines to ease your workload, or envelopes and packaging to keep your business running, please get in touch.
Want to find out more about franking?
At IMS, we’re the franking experts. Want to find out if your business could benefit from mailroom machine such as a franking machine or folder inserter? Ask us!
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