“We have had many more orders for our lightweight voting booths since July,” says Rob van Beem, co-owner of Van Beem & Van Haagen. In total, there are more than three thousand units in the Netherlands, he says.
At the beginning of July, the cabinet fell and new elections were called.
Tons of extra turnover
In addition to the standard voting booths, his company also has a slightly larger version, which is also accessible to disabled voters.
At a gross price of 269 euros for a standard voting booth and 357 euros for the larger version, the order of more than 3,000 voting booths results in an estimated turnover in the Netherlands of 700,000 euros.
According to Van Beem, the company has supplied voting booths and other election resources to approximately 300 municipalities for these elections.
Six seconds
The voting booths are lightweight and can be set up in six seconds, he claims. A light voting booth is easier to carry and if it is set up quickly, it saves a lot of time, says Van Beem.
In a municipality you quickly have many dozens of polling stations, with usually several voting booths in each polling station.
Van Beem & Van Haagen developed the lightweight voting booths themselves, they are made in the factory in Amsterdam and delivered from there to more than 12 countries.
The company also supplies other products for elections, “but the voting booths are our main product,” says Van Beem.
Tent as polling station
Maessen Tentsupply also supplies voting booths, which are then rented out as part of a mobile polling station.
The company normally supplies tents for events, festivals and temporary business accommodation, among other things.
But you can of course also use the tents as mobile polling stations, for example at stations or a shopping center. This application only accounts for a small part of the total turnover.
Equipped
For these House of Representatives elections, this involves several dozen tents in various municipalities, says Roel Nelis, co-owner of Maessen Tentsupply.
Some of these tents are being furnished, with toilets, heating, lighting, tables and desks for polling station members and voting booths.
The price varies between 2,000 and 10,000 euros, says Nelis, depending on the size and the extent to which the tents are furnished.
Nelis does not want to mention the amount of turnover that Maessen Tentsupply will achieve with this. But if it concerns, say, 40 tents, this results in a turnover of between 80,000 and 400,000 euros.
Drive thru
In Heerhugowaard and Broek op Langedijk, part of the North Holland municipality of Dijk en Waard, Maessen Tentsupply has even supplied tents for two drive-through polling stations.
You can fill out your ballot from your car and place it in a ballot box.
Polling station
Reco also rents out temporary polling stations. Normally they are used as a construction shed, for offices or as a school classroom.
And during election times you can turn it into a polling station, explains Robin Looijen, marketing and business development manager.
Rent out some extra units
There are a limited number in total: seven, plus three lifts, so that disabled voters can also reach the mobile polling station.
“We had to say ‘no’ a few times, because we did not have the capacity to install them,” says Looijen. After all, normal work continues, but this is a great opportunity to rent out some extra units, he says.
The mobile polling stations often come with toilets, plus desks and chairs for the polling station employees. Installation, including connecting to electricity and a toilet to a septic tank, takes half to a whole day.
