Election 2024: Mackem v Geordie ballot count challenge

National World - Broadcast Video

A look into the long-running phenomenon of Sunderland being first to declare a constituency result on election nights. And our own Mackem v Geordie battle for supremacy!

Transcript

00:00For 25 years and over six general elections the city of Sunderland routinely provided

00:04the first constituency to declare its result on general election night. Beginning in 1992

00:10the slick wayside operation had runners sprinting with ballot boxes into the hall

00:15and used bank tellers to count the votes.

00:22In 2015 the well oil machine was able to declare the city's three MPs

00:26within an hour and a half of the polls closing. Sunderland's speedy streak was finally broken

00:32in 2017 when Newcastle City Council declared first, six minutes ahead of its northeast neighbour.

00:39But while Sunderland had routinely been hitting the national headlines on election nights for its

00:44quote unquote victory from the early 1990s onwards, both Newcastle and Sunderland earlier

00:49had stressed on the fateful night in 2017 that it was not a race and that accurately

00:54was more important than they. The spokesman for Newcastle City Council said before the count

00:59if we are one of the first councils to declare that would be great but it is not our stated

01:04intention. Newcastle got there first again in 2019. So discounting of course any notion of it being a

01:10race, how did this come to happen in Sunderland so regularly for so long a period of time and why did

01:15it end? We approached Sunderland City Council for a response but they declined. What we do know is

01:21that one Bill Crawford worked with Sunderland City Council during the years in question. One

01:26interview he gave to BuzzFeed on this topic, which is still available to see online, certainly suggests

01:32that for the 1992 election onwards a conscious effort was made to increase efficiency for the

01:36purpose of announcing the result a few minutes sooner. We also know that 2015 was the final

01:41election night they oversaw in Sunderland and from that year on he began advising Newcastle on

01:46increasing its efficiency counts. Officials in Newcastle worked on improving every aspect of

01:52their operation in 2017, getting the ballot boxes swiftly to the count then getting the papers

01:57quickly onto the counting tables. Where Sunderland used school children to run with the boxes, Newcastle

02:02used sports students to lug the ballot boxes into the sports central hall at Northumbria University.

02:09That night Newcastle had 260 counters while Sunderland had only 240. At the time ahead of the

02:15count Mr Crawford said, the Newcastle system is still transferring into a slick operation whereas

02:19Sunderland have had 25 years to improve. Sunderland have to be favourite. They have all the facilities,

02:25procedures and processes but I think Newcastle will do a really good job in making an earlier

02:29declaration than they have ever done before. The BBC has reported that he will be on hand in the

02:34new Blyth and Ashington constituency in Northumberland on July the 4th this year, General Election Day.

02:40It's not a race of course but if it were we might be describing Blyth and Ashington as a hot favourite

02:45in this regard. Hello I'm Stephen Sullivan and I'm a proud South Tynesider. As you'll have heard for

02:51many years Sunderland was the first constituency in the country to declare the result on election

02:58night. A streak that was finally broken by its neighbour Newcastle upon Tyne. Both city councils

03:06have always been adamant that this has never been a race. But what if it was? Here on the neutral

03:14ground at the Riverview pub in South Shields we're going to settle that matter once and for all.

03:20Who can count up the votes the fastest? The Mackhams or the Geordies? Our two competitors each

03:27have a box filled with the exact same number of stunted up ballot sheets with votes cast for

03:33three objects. Squares, circles and triangles. As adjudicator I already know the results in each box

03:40but neither of our contestants do. Once I start the clock it is a simple matter of each of them

03:47counting up the number of votes cast then getting the papers back into their boxes and delivering

03:53them to me with a declaration of the result. If the declaration is accurate we will have our winner

04:01but if not they'll have to go back to their corner and recount giving their rival a chance

04:07to seize victory. Let's meet the contestants. All right let's meet our first contestant. What's your

04:14name and where do you come from? It's Steve from Gateshead. Steve from Gateshead and what makes you

04:19proud to be a Geordie? It makes me proud of everything about being a Geordie isn't it? It's you know beating

04:24Newcastle with the accent, the history, football teams, everything. All right and are you competitive?

04:34Absolutely yeah yeah. I've got a 10 year old son if I play footy I've got to win. He's 10 years old you

04:38know and everyone says ah he's a child I don't mind no. Play to win. Are you going to win today? I am

04:43going to win whatever it takes I will win today. I will not let the Geordie nation down. And our next

04:47contestant. What's your name and where do you come from? Hi my name is Janet and I'm from Peterley in

04:53Hello Janet. What makes you proud to be a Mackham? Everything about it. The Sunderlands is just the

04:59best place ever. We have the best beaches, the best people, we talk properly, we don't say

05:04crackers we say crackers and we say knickers not knackers. So really we have the best language

05:11and we speak better and we're obviously better looking than the Geordies. And are you competitive?

05:17Just a tiny little smidgen because he's obviously going to lose. All right that is fighting talk so

05:22you are confident that you will win today and take back the Mackham streak? I'll put your money on it.

05:30My money? All right let's see what happens. As soon as I say go you may start counting

05:36your ballots. On your marks, get set, go.

05:53Well we're 20 seconds in and there is no writing going on on the Geordie card but they're straight

06:01in on the Mackham side. Two different ways of doing the ballot counting here. I think my strategy

06:09would be to be calm, collected and make sure you've got the exact right answers. Any mistake

06:17could be a massive failure for either of our counters tonight. So here we have the results.

06:23This will determine whether the Mackhams or the Geordies will be the champions of counting the

06:30ballot papers. Time will tell and we're two minutes in.

06:39Seven minutes gone. Ten minute mark. It's difficult to say whether either are in the lead at this point. Stay focused.

06:46Well the prize money is £2,000. £250 and we are 12 and a half minutes in.

07:10The heat and the tension in the room added with the weather

07:13probably made it a little bit more difficult and tense today. You must have all ballots back inside the box with your results.

07:4319 minutes gone.

07:50Some papers left on your table.

07:55Box and your results.

07:59Stop counting. Check the Mackham result and see if we are correct. If you are correct

08:08you are victorious. If there are any anomalies or errors you will have to recount.

08:26You are not correct.

08:29No. I will start the clock. On your marks, get set, go.

08:38Very tense, yes. Marginally out there from the Mackhams. Was Pace at fault? We'll find out.

08:4720 minutes.

09:03Very intense now. The Mackhams have gone for a recount. The majority ballots are going back in the box.

09:10Very intense now. The Mackhams have gone for a recount. The majority ballots are going back in the box.

09:17Is he ready? Let's see if he has his results.

09:20This is what victory looks like. Stop counting.

09:44All right, time has come. It's the first submission from the jury. But is it correct? Let's find out.

10:05It is my role as official adjudicator to tell you

10:08that in this result, the juries have won.

10:14Get in, come on. Accurate count. Well done, well done, well done.

10:24I'm absolutely thrilled, yeah, absolutely thrilled. Take the title.

10:28Best football team, best city, best fans, best accent, best counter, best counter,

10:34everything. Slow and steady wins the race. So the result is in. The juries have won on this

10:43occasion. That's 22 minutes and 45 seconds. Quite the speed to count 250 ballots.

10:49Well, obviously it was a fix because there's no way that he could beat me in anything,

10:55even like a thumb wrestle or a fingerless drizzle. I mean, I've got the best nails,

10:59I've got the best hair, best top. I don't know what happened. I just don't know what happened.

11:05I do have some personal experiences of electoral counts. When I was 17,

11:08I was roped into the election at Houghton. So I'd involved a lot of sprinting about with boxes

11:15in the days when my personal best in that regard was perhaps a little ahead of me, behind me now.

11:21I also worked on a count or two. One of them was the fateful 2017 general election,

11:27which we lost. Not that it was a competition, no way. I knew we'd lost. I still had my head

11:31down counting and my phone was gleaming away. My so-called friends informing me that Sunderland

11:36had lost and that it was my fault. In 2019, I worked in a polling station. It was for the Euro election

11:42and it was quite a long day, but it's rather easy money. You don't really do much. On the other hand,

11:48it's quite hard money because it's a long and boring day. You aren't allowed to have a television

11:53in there, nor a radio. So if you're going to do it, people, take plenty of the radio.

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