FOR the first time in 30 years Margaret Boyle will be able to go to the polling station in person next time there is an election.

Mrs Boyle has been the election officer at Burnley Council for the past 13 years and for 17 more at the former Accrington Corporation which became Hyndburn Council in 1974 and so has had 30 years of postal votes at her local Accrington elections.

She could write a book on the goings on at elections and has dealt with more than 80 general, local, county, European and by-elections.

Mrs Boyle was in charge when the 1983 General Election in Accrington went to five recounts, they went home at 4.50am, back at 8am and then had a further two recounts before Conservative Ken Hargreaves was declared the winner.

In Burnley she witnessed her first ever tie with Enid Tate, Conservative, and Labour's Eddie Fisk both polling 766 votes after three recounts.

Mrs Boyle said: "In the event of a tie, in Burnley we use the system of two envelopes. One has a blank piece of paper inside and another has a cross on a piece of paper. Mrs Tate picked the winner."

At another Hyndburn election it got to 10.15pm and one of the ballot boxes had still not been brought to the count and Mrs Boyle asked the police to investigate. But when they went round to the polling station they found the polling officer had nipped home for a cup of tea because he thought there would be no urgency as the counters would have a lot of other boxes to deal with.

Mrs Boyle said: "It is a very interesting job and you have to have good organisational skills and I have loved it."

There is no chance of a holiday from March to May because of the elections and the autumn is a busy period as the electoral roll is compiled.

Mrs Boyle, of Accrington, was picked as Miss Accrington Stanley in 1953. She is a big sporting fan and although her retirement will take her for three weeks in Marbella with husband Alf, her son-in-law is under instructions to record England's Euro 96 matches!

Her successor Alison Parkinson has been in training part-time for three years and takes over from July 1.

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