I must respond to the extraordinary letter from Rupert Curley (‘Attempt to influence voting at polling station’, Opinion, May 20).

First the factual inaccuracies... We only ever had one “teller” at a time at any polling station – any more would be a waste of resources – so if Mr Curley encountered two people, one was undoubtedly from another party.

Secondly, the majority of our tellers will forgive me if I say they are no longer in the first flush of youth and are far from intimidating.

Thirdly, he completely misunderstands the purpose of ‘telling’.

Far from being an attempt to determine voting intention, the idea is to keep track on those people who have voted so that they are not called on later in the day to remind them to vote. All parties operate this way, not just the Conservatives. No one has any way of knowing how individuals actually voted.

If he is concerned about attempts to influence votes, I suggest he should be more concerned about the mock polling card featuring Joan Ryan that was carried into polling stations by Labour voters, contrary to election law, or the disgraceful letter written by the headteacher of Enfield Grammar School to parents just days before the election, which was clearly designed to influence voting intentions and which also broke election law.

Andrew Nicholas

Chairman, Enfield North Conservative Association