Does anyone look know what polling and count staff are being paid in the referendum in march?
Where you a presiding officer at the last election event or a polling clerk?
Presiding officer
Cheers. I presume If you were a presiding officer for previous events, those people get first preference for that role again before they will consider a polling clerk been offered the role if they expressed an interest in doing it?
Yeah they seem to start with the same people in the same roles as the most recent election. I couldn't do it one time so I'm guessing either someone new or someone from a different area became the presiding officer for that spot from then on. I was offered a different spot as presiding officer for the next one
I got appointed as a PO. What is the pay?
I'm a PO again. Assume I'll get my appointment letter in the next few weeks
I am a PO and just collected my ballot box. There is a Travel and Subsistence form in the box. What, if anything, am I entitled to claim for? I didn’t claim for travel or subsistence last year.
I don’t know. Don’t think I got one in mine.
They never seem to tell people. I'm guessing it'll be less than the last time as the last time had local, European and a referendum. I got €575 gross for that one.
I do- the effort vs your time and any added value of extra income diminishes greatly- the pitiful low rate at which the high tax rate kicks in is a major drag on productivity: i turned down a promotion in two past as the extra pay was 50% of gross for taking on a whole load of extra responsibility. I went and rented a room in my home for more money, far less effort and tax free income instead - sometimes you’ve got to weigh up your time vs paying more cash into the black hole of the state
Off topic, but if there is a dispute about if somebody has voted or not how is a final decision made?
I only ask because on Friday the lad at the table had started crossing off somebody else's name on the sheet and the guy beside him was tearing off the voting paper to give to me when I pointed out that it was the wrong person.
They then found me on a different page and gave me back my voting card.
I don't know what they did with the person they had partially put the line through as I had moved to the polling booth.
If I had let them go ahead I could have went back and voted again later if I was that way inclined and the first person probably wouldn't have been allowed to vote.
There are clear rules around that scenario in the presiding officer handbook. If the person showed up even if there was a line through their name they would have been allowed to vote once it was established that they were the person on the list. If you went back to vote twice it is an offence. It's a 16 hour day for the staff with no breaks so small mistakes can happen. In this case partly due to yourself no harm was done. They may have copped the mistake after you left and rectified it had you not. Everyone is so suspicious of the staff but I have never seen even one person bend the rules in 10 plus years doing the jobs.
I know it was a mistake but how could they prove that I had voted already or the other person prove that he hadn't? It was only my second time voting in that station so they didn't know me. I presume there weren't any cameras.
Who would the onus of proof be on?
Would it not be more secure to have the voter sign when they receive the ballot paper or something?
It's just something I never thought about before.
would be more secure, but would be way more cumbersome and you’d have people complaining about that too (rightfully IMO). Not to mention that anybody can sign any name and unless you have something to verify it against, signatures by themselves are useless
There’s no perfect way of doing things and the current way is fine
got notification of payment. Nice to have for December 🙌
Any idea or what the rate is for a polling clerk? Still haven’t received anything back about it.
Hi, our local rate was €518 (before tax).
Did anyone get paid yet for the recent by elections?
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