Verification

Know roughly where you finished before the returning officer speaks.

Verification is the sampling you do at the count itself. Your people watch the bundles come off the tables and tally what they see box by box, then type the figures in. The dashboard turns that sample into a running total and, once you tell it the electorate, a projected result with a margin of error.

The verification dashboard mid-count: total votes counted, boxes counted, electors covered and the leading candidate, with the results-so-far chart below.

A declared result can be hours away, and the room is full of noise. Verification gives you a second read on the count as it happens, built from what your own people see rather than what gets announced at the podium.

It needs the ward's ballot linked, because the candidate names, party and emblem all come from there. With none linked yet, the tab offers the ballots on file for that ward so you can pick one.

Print a tally sheet per counter, collect the figures box by box as they call them, and the dashboard totals what you have so far by candidate and by polling district.

How verification works

1

Link the ballot

Select Verification on the ward, and where more than one ballot is on file, pick it from the Election list. If nothing is linked yet, the tab lists the ballots on file for the ward so you can link one.

Once candidates are showing, Tally sheets gives a preview of what each counter carries: candidates in ballot order, alphabetical by surname, each with a party emblem and a TOTAL box.

The tally sheet preview: a ward name header, a volunteer name and polling district line, then each candidate's party emblem, name and party, and a TOTAL box, with the PDF download button beside it.
2

Print the sheets

Download tally sheets (PDF) gives the sheet your people actually carry into the count: one A4 page, candidates in ballot order with their party emblem pulled from the Electoral Commission register, a TOTAL box and ruled lines for tally marks. Choose 2 pages per sheet in the print dialog, wide orientation, for an A5 sheet each.

Emblems come from the same party register the rest of the app uses. Where a candidate's party has no emblem file on file, that box prints a flat colour swatch instead of leaving a gap, so nobody at the count is looking at a blank square wondering if it printed correctly.

The printed A4 tally sheet, as generated: Chalkwell at the top, then each candidate's real party emblem (Confelicity, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Green, Labour rose, Reform UK) beside their name and a TOTAL box with ruled tally lines.
3

Enter what they count

Data entry is for organisers. Choose the polling district, with the electorElector nounA person entitled to vote who appears on the electoral register at their address.In Cadrify Every elector is a single ongoing record in Cadrify. Door-knock history, score, voting history and contact details all attach to that one person across every register import and every campaign that uses it. count shown beside each one where the ward's districts are on file, and the box number. Each box within a district is entered separately rather than added up by hand.

Type the votes for each candidate, whole numbers only, zero or above, and leave a candidate blank if that box gave them nothing you saw. Saved boxes list on the right with their candidate rows. Deleting a box sets every candidate in it back to zero and drops it out of the running total, and re-entering it restores it.

The data-entry form: polling district and box number fields, a vote input per candidate with the party swatch, and the boxes saved so far listed on the right.
4

Read the dashboard as the count goes on

The dashboard totals what has been entered so far: total votes counted, boxes counted, electors covered and the leading candidate. Results so far and the chart break the count down by candidate, and Results by polling district does the same geographically, switchable between candidate and party.

Enter a total electorate, and an expected turnout if you have a view on it, then select Apply assumptions. The dashboard scales your sample into a projected result with a margin of error on the chart, worked out from how many votes you have counted so far. Leave turnout blank to scale from votes counted instead.

The dashboard with assumptions applied: the estimated result banner showing each candidate's current and projected votes with a margin of error, and a note that the leader's lead is within the margin, above the results-so-far chart.

In practice

The result looks close

Enter the ward's total electorate as soon as you have a figure, and add expected turnout if you have a view on it. The margin of error narrows as more boxes come in, so a result that looks close on a small sample can firm up as the evening goes on.

A counter is not sure which box they are on

Boxes within a polling district are kept separate on purpose. Enter each one as its own row rather than a running mental total, so a mistake in one box does not spread into the figures for the rest of the district.

No candidates are listed yet

The tab needs the ward's ballot linked before it knows who is standing. Link it from the list the tab offers, or from the ward's edit page if the ballot itself is missing, and the candidate list appears with party emblems already attached.

Several people are tallying at once

Print a sheet per counter and give each one a polling district and box to watch. Every entry lands on the same dashboard, so the organiser reads one running total rather than reconciling several paper tallies by hand.

FAQ

Does verification need a linked ballot?

Yes. Candidate names, parties and emblems all come from the ward's linked ballot. With none linked, the tab offers the ballots on file for that ward so you can link one.

Who can enter tally data?

Data entry is organiser only. Anyone with canvasser access or above can read the dashboard and print tally sheets.

Does verification work for a group of wards?

No. It stays on the single-ward campaign, the same as GOTV, because a count is counted ward by ward. Open the individual ward to use it.

How is the projected result worked out?

From the electorate and expected turnout you enter, scaling the votes counted so far and attaching a margin of error based on the sample size. It runs in your browser and is not written anywhere, so it updates instantly as more boxes are typed in.

What if a box is entered wrong?

Delete it. Every candidate in that box goes back to zero and it drops out of the running total. Re-enter it to restore the figures.

Where do the party emblems come from?

The Electoral Commission's party register. Where no emblem file is on disk, the sheet and the dashboard fall back to a flat colour block for that party rather than leaving a gap.

Is there a cost to using it?

No. Verification is included. Only broadcast email, per-address geocoding and AI features are metered, as set out on the pricing page.

What this means for your campaign

You get your own read on the result while the count is still running, built from what your people watched happen rather than waiting on an announcement. A close race shows up as close on your own numbers, not as a surprise at the podium.

Set it up before the day: link the ballot and print sheets for everyone who is going in. On the night the job is to enter boxes as they are counted and let the dashboard do the maths.

See Cadrify in action

Book a demo and we will walk you through it on a real ward.