Rapid results: UK ballot counters braced for race to declare first winner

One of the most notable quirks of a British election begins with the sound of running shoes squeaking on a sports hall’s varnished floor.

But balls and rackets are nowhere to be seen, because the activity is a lot more niche than the usual fare. It is part of the race to be the UK’s fastest election count – where ballot boxes filled with thousands of votes are opened, counted and collated before the result is declared less than 90 minutes after the last vote was cast.

The record, set in Sunderland nearly two decades ago, stands at 42 minutes and 45 seconds – and is probably impossible to beat. Nevertheless, the Sunderland team will make the most of every second.

But in the last two elections, the city has been beaten by its north-east rival Newcastle, which declared first in 2017 and 2019, each time within 90 minutes of the polls closing at 10pm.

However, it seems Newcastle is not touting itself as a potential winner this election, though a spokesperson said “obviously we can never rule it out completely”. This is down to boundary changes making the count more complex, with ballots coming from farther afield. Its earliest declaration time is estimated at 1.15am on Friday.

Newcastle council, which administers the vote, said it was “happy for our north-east counterparts to take the glory of being first”, adding: “Our chief executive is focusing on an accurate count, rather than a fast one.”

In most constituencies, counting the tens of thousands of votes cast during an election takes somewhere between five and eight hours, which means voters usually have to stay up very late or get up very early to discover the outcome.

Sunderland has held bragging rights for decades, being the quickest to declare at every general election between 1992 and 2015, and setting that record time of 10.42pm for Sunderland South in 2001.

The feat was described as a “military operation”, with the count masterminded by the returning officer Bill Crawford, who left Sunderland in 2015. Under his stewardship, ballot counters were sourced from local banks because of their speed with small bits of paper. And he would recruit sixth-formers from nearby schools, training them on how best to run with ballot boxes in their hands.

And this time Sunderland may not have to look too far for a new competitor.

In 2019, third place was taken by the Northumberland constituency Blyth Valley, which may have been the first to declare had it not been for just 700 votes separating the Tories and Labour, requiring a recount to be held, which delayed the declaration time.

While Blyth Valley no longer exists as a constituency, the new seat of Blyth and Ashington is expected to be the champion in 2024, estimated to declare at 11.30pm.

And while the elite returning officer’s stint at Sunderland may have ended in 2015, he has not quit counting. In 2017, for one election, he oversaw the winning count in Newcastle, before last election heading to – you’ve guessed it – Blyth.

In setting the record, ballot papers were made thinner (reduced from 100gsm to 80gsm) to be made more flexible and easier to count, and driving distances from polling stations were analysed to find the quickest routes.

But this year, the same constituency, renamed Houghton and Sunderland South after boundary changes, is expected to declare at a respectable, but not record-beating, 11.45pm.

In a general election where Labour is widely expected to win, there is at least one competition that is still all to play for.