[Closed] Polling day, then

The only time you'll find me in a church hall. Rock up straight off the bike from work about 19:30.

50m walk to the local community centre. Extremely busy but no queues.

Will pop in early evening.

Postal here. Sent a couple of days ago.

Odd thing with postal votes, is that they send them out about 3 weeks in advance and recommend you don't delay in sending them back. Surely the period of campaigning is when you're supposed to make your decision about who to vote for? What if one of the candidates turns out to be a complete ****wit in this period? What if one of them pulls out or is disqualified? Just suppose I voted for a disqualified candidate in advance, do i get another go?

Job jobbed. I feel politically empowered now. Free Tibet and all that.

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Postal vote went last week. I know feel slightly cheated as I missed all those final days of impassioned persuasive debate. Dave rolled his sleeves up and everyfink

Postal vote done a few days ago.

Stupid question from a first time voter;
Do I need to know names of local candidates or is it simply a case of ticking the appropriately coloured box?

Thanks 🙂

It is all quite clear. Just remember to read the instructions, you get more than one vote for the council but only 1 for MP.

I just went to my sleepy little polling station, was just myself and a pushy woman with a blue rosette.

07:03 - third one in, annoying people asking you question on way in and our. Voted for the least bad option with best grasp of local affairs. Unsatisfying that there was no one doing enough to call for a positive "yes I want you to represent me" vote. All rather disappointing.

Only person voting in our village hall this morning. Took my sweet time over it.

Just done it on the way in to work in a church hall, couldn't be bothered the last few times. I voted for the ones who wont cut down too many trees, didnt know any names, not read any info or agendas whatsoever.

Do I need to know names of local candidates or is it simply a case of ticking the appropriately coloured box?

The candidates' names are accompanied by the party they represent on the ballot.

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went to the church just down the road from me, fairly quiet so got to say hello to the former colleague who was running the polling station and have a nice chat with him.

Heading to the village hall in about an hour or so.

Odd thing with postal votes, is that they send them out about 3 weeks in advance and recommend you don't delay in sending them back. Surely the period of campaigning is when you're supposed to make your decision about who to vote for? What if one of the candidates turns out to be a complete **** in this period? What if one of them pulls out or is disqualified? Just suppose I voted for a disqualified candidate in advance, do i get another go?

Well, you didn't HAVE to vote by post. You could have waited until today, but then that would be taking some responsibility for your own arrangements instead of expecting the State to sort everything out for you eh?... 😉 🙂

School hall here, I'll cycle over after work I think and cross the required box.

Village hall, next door to village school. A walk across the fields to drop the kids at school then went in and made my mark. Bucolic bliss of the shires. Lets just say this aint Labour territory 😉

Quaint village hall about 6pm this eve for me...

Postal vote went last week. I know feel slightly cheated as I missed all those final days of impassioned persuasive debate.

I got the best of both worlds using the cunning combo of a postal vote which I filled in last night and gave to the wife to drop off at the polling station this morning. 😀

I will be making my way to the local polling station when I have made it home this afternoon. I'm quite looking forward to it really.

Same as Stoner, quaint village hall, voted as part of school run (just realised how similar the setup is in Welland, village hall, school, playing field). Polling booths surprisingly public this time - difficult to hide who you're voting for, not that I'm bothered if anybody sees.

yes, we had those pop up partition things. No curtains or anything. I felt horribly exposed while putting my thumb print in the UKIP box. What if the vicar had seen?

Well, you didn't HAVE to vote by post.

I could have not voted i suppose. But given the point of a PV is so you can vote when you aren't able to make it to the polling station in person, I can't see how requesting a PV is expecting the state to take care of it for me?

I've got a bit of a bad back today. Anyone got the number for Calderdale labour party so I can get a lift down the hill?

Just in case
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/features/the-mash-who-to-vote-for-test-2015042797753

Anyone got the number for Calderdale labour party so I can get a lift down the hill?

that's just spiteful when you go and vote conservative instead.

Off to the village hall this evening. Only the five main choices here and none of them appeal. I'd vote green but their leader sounds like a foreigner so maybe UKIP should be my choice.

Hoping that South West Trains can get me home in time to vote this evening as was already commuting in by the time the polling station opened. Starting to think a postal vote would have been a good idea.

their leader sounds like a foreigner so maybe UKIP should be my choice.

I dont know. "Farage" doesn't sound very Anglo Saxon either.

We have a village hall next door which is a polling station. Unfortunately our property is on a boundary so we'll have to cart wreckerjnr a mile down the road. He'll probably enjoy it though, he seems to enjoy everything!

I dont know. "Farage" doesn't sound very Anglo Saxon either.

To masturbate in an angry and confused way using unconventional stimuli.
[i]Mark's Wife was furious when she caught him having a farage over a picture of Ann Widdecombe. [/i]

Yep. Our local primary school. Me and Chris clunked out to have our say and then pottered off to Lidl for a pain au chocolat to go with our breakfast coffees and some halloumi for lunch. Up the proletariat, comrades!

So do you know how your local council election is likely to go, Stoner? Isn't your current councillor the landowner for one of the big controversial developments there? Checking your ballot paper, it looks like one of the leaders of the campaign against the development is standing against him. Is there much publicity there about this?

dogy local councillor with land under development has done no advertising, but he's latched on to the conservative ticket so that he hopes to get the automatic tory vote from the unthinking members of this parish.

The two independents I know v well. One headed up the anti development campaign group, he's done a lot of canvassing and has boards up in supporters gardens all over the village.

The third candidate is also indy, he's my neighbour (no really, right next door). Top bloke, but doesnt have as much of a following, and he wouldn't have stood if the other guy had said he was standing earlier than at the last minute. Bit uncoordinated the pair of them. Minor risk of my neighbour splitting the anti-dodgy councillor vote.

Going to be close in Cambridge, current LibDem MP is being given a close run by Labour.

Was there first thing, along with a few old dears, actually changed my mind at the point of putting in the crosses....

just realized this morning that the usual situation of the polling station in the pub (hooray!) has been changed to the local school (boo!)

actually changed my mind at the point of putting in the crosses....

Ooh.. confounding the pollsters.. nice.

put my x, don't think it will make a blind bit of difference, doesn't matter who you vote for the government always gets in

actually changed my mind at the point of putting in the crosses....

Green to UKIP? 😉

[quote=Stoner ]dogy local councillor with land under development has done no advertising, but he's latched on to the conservative ticket so that he hopes to get the automatic tory vote from the unthinking members of this parish.

Though he appears to have won last time as a Lib Dem, beating the Conservative candidate, so that may not do him much good! As you say the issue is the Indies splitting the vote - I've spoken to Mick, so just checked my e-mails to confirm it was who I thought when I saw his name on the ballot.

Nigel is a lovely guy, and he was going to withdraw once Mick had announced he was standing, but somehow he was convinced by someone to continue to stand as they didnt know Mick, and as such would have voted for mr bad instead rather than Mick if Nigel wasnt standing. Fortunately Nigel's fanbase is so small that I dont think he'll take too much from Mick. But you can imagine there will be a lot of grumbling if Mr Bad gets in on the back of an Indy split.

Church hall round the corner. Visiting on the way to the butcher to get a pie for dinner. So what pie for democratic participation?

Pork pies for politics innit

Freshly shot partridge, what, with green beans and red cabbage in an English ale for English voters gravy 😀

Postal vote late last week but I'll wander up this evening to the village hall when my wife casts her vote. Interested to note that one of the candidates for my constituency lives around 350 miles away.

British Red Cross building for me then spent some time hanging out at the (only) polling station in my constituency.

Will go back at lunchtime and this evening - just make a presence, as permitted by the laws and that.

Rachel

I did have the option of cannabis is safer than alcohol.... but the guy couldn't get out and canvass due to excessive snacking... There was a ukip and green candidate but much as I tried I couldn't find out about them... It left the "big" three... So I made my bed as it were....

Third voter in to our polling station.

First time I have cast my vote on a gas hob!

Can't get the image link to work

Two late twenty-something single mothers* outside my polling station arguing:
[i]
" I ain't voting for that ****er, what a posh tosser in his smart suits and all that, even though I think milliband is an ugly ****"[/i]

Nice to know the local populous is voting based on an intellectual judgement of our potential political outcome...

marcus7 - that's bad if they are not making the effort. I've been round and knocked on every door (apart from a few I couldn't access) in my ward. Over 100k steps and I have a severely croaky voice now!

Rachel

" I ain't voting for that *, what a posh tosser in his smart suits and all that, even though I think milliband is an ugly *"

That may end up being as good a basis as intellectual judgement 😀

Sorry for the hijack folks, but in a way I find the local election more interesting as I actually know a lot of the people involved, and there might be a big power shift this election (of those on our ballot paper, 3 of them I know very well - Stoner might live next door to one of his, but given I don't live in a country mansion like him I'm probably geographically closer to one of mine who lives 2 doors away)

[quote=slowjo ]First time I have cast my vote on a gas hob!

😆 - really, where is that? Not sure about the disabled access!

So what pie for democratic participation?

Labour: Pork and pickle - the staple of the working classes but these days possessed of an unshakable whiff of gentrification
Lib Dem: Mince and onions - no one's favourite as it's a bit bland and lacking in substance
Tories: Stew with a hat - they only care about the upper crust
UKIP: Fray Bentos steak and ale - Proud to be both iconically british and deeply ignorant
SNP: Scotch pie - anything else would be tantamount to treason
Greens: Quiche

Greens: Quiche

The bastards, last time I vote for them, quiche indeed.

Quaint village hall for me.

If I'd seen that Katie Hopkins thing I'd have voted Labour though, it'd be worth it to be shot of that colostomy bag of bile.

Local Election
Conservative, UKIP or Lib Dem. That was tricky then.

Two late twenty-something single mothers* outside my polling station arguing:

" I ain't voting for that *, what a posh tosser in his smart suits and all that, even though I think milliband is an ugly *"

Nice to know the local populous is voting based on an intellectual judgement of our potential political outcome...

More or less what STW'ers said on the Miliband thread !

one of the candidates for my constituency lives around 350 miles away

Churchill was MP for Dundee for 14 years and apparently only went there three times!

Labour: Pork and pickle - the staple of the working classes but these days possessed of an unshakable whiff of gentrification

Shouldn't that be:

Labour: Urban farmed spelt-fed Pork with juniper and pomegranate pickle ?

Did my democratic duty this morning BUT frustratingly my vote is worth very little - Hertfordshire North East is an ultra safe Conservative seat & my vote is only worth 0.064 of a vote!!

Checkout - http://www.voterpower.org.uk/

In 2010 the Conservatives got 54% of the vote; Lib/Dems 23%; & Lab 16% - so tactical voting doesn't really work either...... But I tried anyway!

Good luck to the rest of you as your vote is worth 4.8% more than mine - on average. UNLESS - your in one of the 7% very marginals OR 12% of the marginals....

Voted first thing, after thinking I'd better firstly do some research into the candidates, past results and likely outcomes. Was surprised to see the last Lib Dem Candidate was jailed for clubbing his pet cat to death 😯

my vote is only worth 0.064 of a vote!!

Ooh get you with your high numbers. Mines worth 0.040!

0.640 here 🙂

I just don't know how people coped with the utter excitement of such a day before the internet gave them an outlet.

@aracer - Little Saxham just outside Bury St Edmunds.

There is disabled access. It involves the two ladies inside the booth dismantling the table and creating a new polling booth as and when a disabled person arrives. We did ask about it, out of interest more than anything else and they confirmed they had 'been trained' so I guess they know what they are doing!

iirc there are almost 80 potential voters - hence the commodious accommodation! 🙂

0.072

0.420 here.

0.461 😀

0.305!

0.774.

This is apparently 2.54* the power of the average UK vote. Something is decidedly mucked up about that.

Was surprised to see the last Lib Dem Candidate was jailed for clubbing his pet cat to death

If he was UKIP he would have ****ed it first.

Allegedly.

Vote for the dead

I have made my mark

1.105.

Here are the highlights of my current MPs voting during his five years:

Likes:

Bedroom Tax
Cutting Welfare Benefits
Selling Forests
Taxing booze
War

Dislikes:

Taxing the rich
Mansion Tax
Bankers Bonus Tax

It's so difficult.....

Ooh I have 1.025 votes!

Close Con/Lab last time so I'm glad I'm going home. Although given the swing away from Con it should be regained by Lab I think.

scruff - Member
I voted for the ones who wont cut down too many trees

Which ones? The ones who like to hug trees or the ones who like to pay people to do sit watching daytime TV?

Voted in village hall at 7am. Polling station was open and taking voters early - very organised.

For local, voted Cons, although I don't care for Tories or the coalition, the local guy does a reasonable job IMHO.
For national, voted UKIP. (Awaits brickbats).

0.058 for me which is completely wrong, it's held by Labour but will fall to SNP.

Lib Dem: Mince and onions - no one's favourite as it's a bit bland and lacking in substance