Sally Sprason, 48, is Swindon borough’s electoral services manager and deputy returning officer, and is overseeing the preparations for the forthcoming local and European elections. She lives in Cheltenham with her partner, a software company director, and has a 14-year-old son.

SALLY Sprason was in her mid-twenties before she discovered her vocation and addiction.

Call her an election junkie and she’ll laugh and admit: “I am, I am – I know. I have to get my fix of elections – seeing the votes pile up and seeing who’s winning.

“Of course, you have to be totally apolitical, which I am.

“I have an interest in the process but not particularly politics itself. I don’t think you could have if you worked in elections. You’d be too biased.”

If Sally and her staff get everything right, hardly anybody in the outside world notices. If anything were ever to go wrong, it’s a fair bet that all hell would break loose, complete with outraged headlines and tough questions from some very powerful people.

Hers is the sort of responsibility most of us would run from, but she thrives on it.

“I like things to be right, and I like working in quite strict legal environments, which is something I’ve only discovered since I started working on elections.

“The law interests me, and I thrive on working to strict timelines because I find it’s quite a challenge.”

“I like it so much that I’m a trainer for our professional association, and I’m also an examiner for the professional qualification that many people now hold in the industry.”

The borough’s returning officer – the person who reads out the result once counting is complete – is Stephen Taylor, the council’s Director of Law and Democratic Services.

As his deputy, Sally shares legal responsibility for the proper conduct of elections and heads a small team organising them. There’s usually only one election a year, which can lead to misconceptions among the public. .

“We quite often get that comment: ‘What do you do for the other 364 days?’ “We obviously have to book all the polling stations, and preceding each election we have to make sure the register is compiled.

“That’s a huge task – over 160,000 people for Swindon and 95,000 properties. We have to check, maintain and update all of that information, ready for people to vote.

“We book staff, we book count centres, we have to produce poll cards, we have to produce 30,000 postal packs, we have to receive all of that and sort it out. We have to put out all the stationery for polling stations, which is thousands and thousands of pieces of paper...”

Sally is originally from Stroud. She left school at 16 and worked as a dental nurse, planning to train as a hospital nurse as soon as she was old enough, but by her mid twenties was in local government.

She soon discovered her vocation in the elections department of her local district council, and has been in her current role in Swindon since 2010.

Sally prefers the British ballot box system to American-style voting machines. “That’s a difficult one. I like the box and the paper because I like the count. That’s really exciting.

“Whether it would be the same if you did electronic voting and – obviously – electronic counting, I don’t know. It might take the excitement out of the job.

“It’s whatever is best for democracy in the end, and I’m sure it’ll go that way in the end. We’re moving to electronic registration in the summer.”

There have been electronic voting pilot schemes, the biggest of which was in Swindon in 2007.

Another sign of the times is the rise of postal votes, of which about 30,000 – more than ever before – will soon be cast in the borough.

Sally said: “The safeguarding of postal votes is very good. Because of changes in legislation we have to check what we call Postal Vote Statements. For someone’s vote to be valid, when it comes back it must have a Postal Vote Statement with their signature and date of birth.

“That is read by the computer system, and if there are any queries on those we have to check. If they’re wrong they don’t get included in the count.”

Some aspects of the democratic process will probably always be low-tech, though. If there’s a dead heat after recounts, for example, the outcome of an election could technically be decided on the flip of a coin.

Sally’s preference is to put slips of paper bearing the names of the two tied candidates into a container and draw one. This once happened during her time in Stroud.

For the forthcoming polls, Sally is urging people to vote as early as possible – although a change in the law means anybody in the queue at 10pm will be able to cast their ballot.

“Don’t leave it until 10 o’clock. Vote as early as you can and also, if you know you can’t or think you might not be able to attend the polling station, apply for a postal vote. That’s a sure and easy way of voting because it’s delivered to people’s doors, and it’s safe and secure.”

Resolutely apolitical, Sally is nevertheless a passionate advocate of participation in democracy.

“I think people can’t complain about who’s representing them if they don’t vote. It’s about having a voice and it can make a massive difference.

“If you want to make a difference you should really get out there and vote.

“It starts early and it’s habit to go to polling stations. It’s nice if parents take their children so they appreciate the process as they’re growing up.”