Canvass Information

Electoral Canvass Information

Each year the Electoral Services Office has to publish a revised Register of Electors (or Voters Roll). This involves conducting an audit of all residential properties in Islington. In order to carry out this task we need to employ a number of enthusiastic, fit and dedicated staff to join our voter registration team. Each member of the team (called an electoral canvasser) is allocated to an area of roughly 450 properties.

We ask the occupiers to complete and return the Voter Registration Form and use the information gathered to publish the new Register on 1 December.

The canvass is carried out in four stages. If you were interested in joining our Voter Registration team you would need to be available to complete three of these stages (one is a Royal Mail delivery only).

• Stage 1 starts around 8 August. You will be issued with an envelope containing a registration form for every property in your canvass area. You will have about 5 days to hand-deliver all the forms issued to you.

• Stage 2 will commence around 29 August. Over half of the households will not have returned the form you delivered previously. You will be issued with a second form for any properties that have not responded. Again you will have about 5 days to hand-deliver all the forms issued to you.

• Stage 4 will begin on 10 October. This is the most demanding stage.

There will still be a significant number of properties that have not responded by this point.  You will be required to call at all properties we have not received information from and get the residents to complete the form on the doorstep for you. You will have 4 weeks (to include 5 weekends) to carry out this task.

Your visits to properties will need to be carried out on evenings and weekends as these are the most likely times that you will find residents at home. We ask that you make at least 2 visits during this period to obtain the information. You will be asked to report back to the office on a regular basis. At the end of the personal canvassing stage you will be expected to post the remaining forms through the doors of non-responding properties.

Minimum Standard

In order for the whole process to be worth your while you will need to collect accurate information for at least 70% of the forms issued to you at stage 4 of the canvass.

Payment

You will be paid a delivery fee per form delivered at stages 1 and 2. At stage 4 there is a payment for every form collected plus a bonus payment scheme will be in operation (see Canvass Payment Structure Sheet).

Other Benefits

In the event of any elections being held (next due to be June 2009) our canvassers will be offered the delivery of poll cards. You will also be able to deliver voter confirmation letters in March 2009 at a good rate of pay.