We sometimes need temporary election staff. This is usually at election time and when we're preparing the new electoral roll.

If you fill in a temporary job application form, we will add your details to our list and consider you for future vacancies.

Election staff

Before the election

Elections are usually on the first Thursday of May. In the run-up to the elections and on election day, we need:

  • Presiding officers
  • Poll clerks
  • Postal vote opening assistants
  • Count assistants
  • People to deliver poll cards

For more information about the roles, please see out election staff responsibilities page.

These posts may be fixed or variable hours for one day or a number of days to be agreed.

Payments for a single election are around:

  • £295 for a presiding officer
  • £190 for a poll clerk
  • £12.50 per hour for a postal vote assistant
  • £12.50 - £18 per hour for a count assistant (depending on the day and time of the count)

For combined elections, some payments are higher.

Conflict of interest

When you work at an election is is vital that everyone has confidence in your impartiality. As part of this, you cannot do any of the following:

  • Campaign for a political party or candidate
  • Display publicity material on your car or home, for a political party or candidate
  • Have a member of your immediate family who is an elected representative or a prospective candidate
  • Subscribe to any candidate's nomination papers at the election

Delivering the annual canvass

We have to by law do a canvass every year (between July and November). This is to check the information that we hold on the electoral register is up-to-date and correct.

We need canvassers to help us with this work, this includes:

  • Delivering a canvass communication letter to properties within a canvass area
  • Carrying out a personal canvass to any non-responding/unmatched properties

Please contact our elections team, using the details below, if you are interested in becoming a paid canvasser for us.

Entitlement to work in the UK

If we appoint you to one of these positions, you will have to show you are entitled to work in the UK. You will need to provide one of the following:

  • A valid passport
  • A full birth certificate issued in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man or Ireland, plus an official document giving your permanent National Insurance number
  • A residence permit, registration certificate or document showing you are entitled to live in the UK permanently

Other forms of entitlement - contact us for more information using the contact details on the right of this page. The UK Border Agency also provides information on working in the UK if you are a European national and working in the UK if you are a non-European migrant.


Contact us

Elections and electoral registration


Scroll to the top of the page