Eyes on every polling station: how Authentic8 polling day inspections capture data in real time

We built Democracy Counts on the hardest, most scrutinised function in government: running elections, where accuracy, transparency and trust are non-negotiable. Authentic8 is where that rigour meets the polling station floor and the Authentic8 Polling Station Inspections feature is a clear example of what "electoral-grade" looks like in practice.

Polling day moves fast. Inspectors cover multiple stations, each with its own people, paperwork and checks, often against the clock and sometimes without a reliable signal. Authentic8 takes that pressure and turns it into a calm, structured workflow on a single tablet. Here's how it works — and why it matters.

Your whole round, on one screen

An inspector opens Authentic8, polling station inspections which takes them to a single live list of the polling stations they're responsible for. Each station shows its status, essentially Open or Not Open, and how many inspections have already been logged. There are no clipboards, no spreadsheets and no paper rounds to reconcile later. It's the difference between chasing information and simply seeing it.

Start a guided visit in seconds

Tapping a station reveals its full detail, including the key contacts an inspector might need on the day: Presiding Officers, caretakers and poll clerks, with roles and phone numbers held in one place. From there, the inspector opens a Visit 1 or Visit 2 reports and gets a guided checklist built around electoral best practice and tailored by each local authority to its own statutory requirements.

Compliance checks, captured as you go

The checklist works through each requirement with a simple Yes or No: Is the station clearly signed? Is the route inside free from obstruction? Is the station free of party material within the statutory distance? Where a question needs context, a comment box is there to capture it. The result is a consistent, evidence-led record that reduces human error and leaves a cleaner audit trail for the returning officer.

Works offline, syncs when ready

Polling stations aren't always blessed with connectivity. Authentic8 lets inspectors save a report to the tablet and keep working without signal, then submit it the moment they reconnect, which triggers the sending of the completed visit straight back to the office in real time. It's resilience designed for the realities of the day, not the ideal conditions of a demo.

Postal votes, flagged automatically

If valid postal votes are collected at a station, that's surfaced directly on the inspector's list and the alert clears once the Presiding Officer confirms collection. It's a small detail that delivers something important: tighter oversight of sensitive ballot material, visible to the people who need it.

Review, edit and stay in control

Every visit is timestamped and listed against its station, ready to edit or delete before the record is final. Partially completed inspections aren't lost, infact they're held safely and can be picked up again. It all adds up to confidence that the data is right, first time.

Why it matters

Individually, these are sensible features. Together, they change the shape of polling day. Real-time reporting removes the bottlenecks that come from collecting paper forms and re-keying them after the fact. Tailored checklists mean every council inspects to its own standards while keeping a consistent, defensible record. And because Authentic8 is device-agnostic, local authorities can run it on hardware they already trust, allowing them to use their own security standards and configuration.

This is the same approach we bring across our wider work: build for scrutiny, design for people. Polling station inspections are proof that technology proven in the most demanding civic environment can make the work calmer, faster and more accountable.

Trusted to run elections. Built to power government.

Want to see Authentic8's polling station inspections in action? Contact us at sales@democracycounts.co.uk