Nine Things to Check on a Results Form Before You Sign It
By the time a results form reaches an agent's signature line, everyone in the room has been working for something like twenty hours. That is exactly when documents get signed unread.
So carry a list. Nine items, top of the page to bottom, on any A form for any of the six seats.
Before the count even starts
Two things make the nine checks possible, and both happen earlier in the day.
Bring paper and a pen and keep your own tally during the count. A figure you cannot compare with anything is a figure you can only accept.
And write down the station identity when you arrive, exactly as it appears on the station, so you are comparing the form against a note rather than against a memory.
The nine checks
1. The heading names your station. County, constituency, ward, polling centre, station or stream. Compare it with what you wrote down on arrival. A form headed for somewhere else is not a clerical curiosity.
2. The registered voters figure is filled in. For that station, not for the centre and not for the ward.
3. The ballot account is complete. Ballot papers issued, used, spoilt and unused should all be accounted for rather than left blank because the room is tired.
4. Every candidate on the ballot appears on the form. Read the names against the ballot paper, not against your own memory of who is running.
5. Each figure matches your tally. This is what the tally was for. If one differs, say so before the pen moves, not afterwards.
6. The rejected ballots line is filled in, along with any ballots you objected to. In a close seat this number is frequently larger than the margin.
7. The arithmetic works. Candidate votes plus rejected ballots should equal votes cast, and votes cast should never exceed registered voters. Do the addition on your own paper.
8. There is no blank line and no uninitialled alteration. A blank space can be filled in later by somebody who is not you. A changed figure should be countersigned by the presiding officer.
9. The presiding officer has signed and dated it, and you have your copy in your hand. Not promised, not coming later. In your hand before you leave the room.
If you are not going to sign
You may decline. Say why, and ask for the reason to be recorded on the form.
A refusal with a recorded reason is evidence of a specific objection at a specific time. A refusal with no reason is a story you will be telling weeks later against a document that says nothing about it. Declining to sign does not by itself invalidate a result, and it is not meant to. It preserves the point.
Related: reading the station form in order.
What to do with the copy afterwards
Photograph it in the station under whatever light exists, then keep the paper.
File the photograph by station rather than dropping it into a group chat where it becomes one image among hundreds. A campaign that can produce the signed form for a named station in under a minute has an argument. One that has to scroll a WhatsApp thread does not.
The layout of the form itself is prescribed in the Elections (General) Regulations made under the Elections Act, and the copy you were handed and signed is the version of it that matters to your campaign.
The two checks that catch the most, if you only have a minute
Sometimes the room will not give you time for nine, and it is worth knowing which two to insist on.
The heading, because a form that does not name your station cannot be verified against anything afterwards, and no later process fixes that.
The addition, because candidate votes plus rejected ballots equalling votes cast is a single sum that catches transposed figures, a missing candidate line and a rejected total entered wrongly, all at once.
Do those two even under pressure. Then take the copy, which is not a check at all but is the reason the checks were worth doing.
What to do with this list now
Print it on one page. Put it in the agent pack with a blank form beside it, and run a training session where every agent walks the nine checks out loud on a form they are holding.
Nine checks take about three minutes when they have been practised and about fifteen when they have not, and fifteen minutes is the difference between an agent doing them and an agent signing to get out of the room. Train it long before 10 August 2027, not in the week before.
Related: keeping your agents safe on the day.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a polling agent check before signing a results form?
The station identity in the heading, the registered voters figure, the ballot account, that every candidate is listed, that each figure matches the agent's own tally, the rejected ballots line, the arithmetic, that no line is blank or altered without a countersignature, and that the presiding officer has signed and a copy has been handed over.
Can a Kenyan polling agent refuse to sign a results form?
Yes. An agent may decline and should state the reason so that it is recorded on the form. A refusal does not by itself invalidate the result, but a recorded reason preserves a specific objection made at a specific time, which an unexplained refusal does not.
Why does an agent need to keep a separate tally?
Because without one there is nothing to compare the form against. An agent who has written down the votes as they were called can spot a figure that does not match before signing. An agent who only watched can do nothing but accept what is written.