Hazel Tovey was working as a librarian in Surrey at the age of 18 when her very public-spirited boss encouraged her to offer her services as a Poll Clerk for Elections. Since then, she has continually worked at polling stations when required.
On moving to Chantry in Somerset she offered her services and was given the role as Presiding Officer. She is now 92 – 75 years of supervising a Polling Station. When she was still driving, she could be posted wherever required, but now because she has no transport, she stays in Chantry and presides over our tiny Polling Station in Holy Trinity Church.
She and the Poll Clerk have a long day. They have to be at the Station at 6:30 ready for a 7:00 start. They can’t leave the building and have to be ready for voters until 10pm – only at that moment can they seal all the official forms into their respective envelopes. These days the envelopes are self-sealing, but when Hazel started, they would have to seal each envelope with sealing wax – striking matches to melt the wax.
But the day still isn’t over, the ballot box has to be taken to the collection point – in our case, Shepton Mallet.
In all these years, Hazel can only recollect one incident that caused her some angst, and it was when she had been asked to set up the Polling Station at the old Sun Inn in Whatley. In principle a fantastic idea to have voting in the village pub – lots of people come to vote and have a drink and dinner at the same time! But in this case, the landlord had had a bit too much of the old tipple the night before and didn’t come down at 6:30 the next morning to let Hazel in to set up. Legally, the Polling Station must be ready for voters at 7:00. Hazel shouted, threw stones at the upstairs windows, but no success at rousing the oversleeping landlord. She had no choice but to get the ballot box set up in the boot of her little Austin A30. Sure enough, just after 7:00, a couple of people arrived and enterprising Hazel was ready for them!
She is unique ❤️