This was the process.

1. Go through the dodgy analytics system at emailcc.com which I, for one, have not authorised to collect any data about me, which I have told the Law Society I object to, but it does it anyway.

The meeting that called for the ballot was on 14th October. Today is 27 November. It's a Friday. Where I am, it's already Friday evening. Action is required before 3 December. That's next Thursday and there's a weekend in between. So they've spent more than five weeks setting up an e-mail and they want us to respond in three working days.

That's good.

Right: click on the My LawSociety link. Insert e-mail address. Can't remember password. Ask for new password. It sends a verification link with an e-mail that says

"Thanks for verifying your [email address] account!
Your code is: 304248

Sincerely,
The Law Society"

Enter it.

Get the response "E-mail address now verified. You can now continue."
Click "Continue."
Message pops up: "An account could not be found for the provided user ID"

Sod this for a game of soldiers. Use the Solicitors' Regulation Authority form.

It wants my user ID. No hint what that is - insert my SRA registration number.
Insert e-mail address. Ask for a new password.
Get e-mail

"Thanks for verifying your [email address] account!

Your code is: 764371
Sincerely,
The Solicitors Regulation Authority"

Insert the code. Click Continue.
Apparently my user ID and email address don't go together.

Request user ID.
It arrives. Insert it. It won't work. Why? Because the e-mail has a full stop after it so clicking it and copy/pasting it includes the full stop. Try now, having identified that problem and remedied it.

Insert user ID without the full stop and my email address and request a new password. It wants to send another verification code.
It arrives - like all the others from Microsoft which annoys me intensely because I don't like American companies having any information about me, although to be fair I do tolerate LinkedIn which Microsoft owns - and therefore now has data that it can cross reference across platforms which I absolutely do not like.

Submit code. Reset your password page. I am offered three choices including "Change e-mail." Why? Click Continue. Page stops with the message "Please wait while we process your information."

Insert new password. More hanging around while one of the biggest IT companies in the world processes my information.

Look for a box that says "confirm your information" or something. There isn't one. There's a shed load of intrusive information under the guise of diversity compliance. No, sod that, too. I think all such is inherently -ist of various hues.

Log out.

Have I successfully confirmed my e-mail address at the second site? In the absence of a "confirm your information" button, never mind a response, I have no idea. At the first site? Definitely not.

How, I have to ask, did some idiot design a system that doesn't validate the information before sending the verification code and rejecting the attempt at that point, avoiding the hanging around waiting for e-mails to arrive. This process should have taken five minutes. It's taken from when the mail arrived at 17:35 to now, i.e. 18:43.

How can anyone add that to their timesheets?

Unacceptable.