4 candidates in my area standing for one place as a County Councillor. 3 main parties plus a green, no indy candidate here.

Given these are supposed to be genuinely representing the areas they are standing for election in (as opposed to an MP that allegedly does but then has to follow party lines a lot of the time), I’m dismayed to find that 3 of them don’t even live in the area. Two are at least nearby, and one* lives in the posh houses over on the other side of town.

* go on, guess.

We could vote for two candidates for county council and five for local parish. Of the six candidates for parish, five were from the North East party* and the NE party were the only ones to bother their arses to put a flyer out or even send a body to the polling station to say ‘good morning’ to people.

* socialist

According to our Tory candidate for Bassetlaw (not a chance) – at the local hospital the Children’s ward is ‘closing’ at night because of staffing issues – not funding.

How are the two not linked?

I’ll be voting, always do. A choice of 4 for 3 seats. Two SNP, one independent but choosing will be easy though as the 4th is a Tory 😉

My biggest challenge will be deciding who to put at the bottom of my list, UKIP or Tories

52% of the country disagree with you on that one haha

I voted for our current councillor, from the green party. A) mostly because I’ve actually met him and he gets involved with things. Plus I had him round for a drink a couple of weeks back.

And Done.

Loving the colour of the ballot paper 😆

“I voted for our current councillor, from the green party. A) mostly because I’ve actually met him and he gets involved with things. Plus I had him round for a drink a couple of weeks back.”

Funny, I managed to have a chat with most of our County and Parliamentary candidates last night and they all seemed fine to me, I’d be happy to vote for them all. Having a chat really did make me feel somehow obliged to vote for each of them. As it happens I’ll be doing the next best thing and voting for none. 🙂

I’ve previously worked at the count. Where there is a spoilt ballot paper the Returning Officer has to decide the intent and if there is a vote on it. This process usually involves them reading it out loud to the candidates. Makes for some comedy statements where the paper has be spoilt with some imagination.

The STV system is too confusing. Definitely putting some voters off

Our local SNP councillor is really good. Very active in the community, responds to concerns and questions from residents, gets things done and always provides feedback and updates. She’ll be top of my list.

I voted. The Options included a sensible bloke who you can have a reasoned discussion with (Ind), a rude and spiteful person (Con) and a hysterical shrieking person (Lab). I’ll take a couple of minutes to help ensure the right one sits on my council.

The STV system isn’t confusing though it’s putting some idiots off

Fixed

Don’t really see how it’s so confusing? You literally just rank the candidates you like, in order. The only thing that seems to cause confusion is that you don’t have to give everyone a number but that’s simple enough really.

Some people seem to have a vested interest in making it seem difficult or confusing though.

I voted. Took a bit longer than expected, as I forgot and had walked a couple of minutes up the road. As mentioned above, the people in the polling station seemed pleased to see me (and I only saw a couple of other people dropping kids off at the school next door then going to vote – I suspect the turnout isn’t going to be very high if they can’t even be bothered!)

Not idiots, just well meaning older folk who turn out to vote but don’t understand the system.

Not until the 18th here, but I have a paper with a random list of names that a google search doesn’t reveal any more than their personal bio’s. How the hell I am to choose the political leader of my ward based on that?

Rubbish.

Why can “older” people not understand the system?

Candidates here can’t even be bothered to stick flyers through the door, knock on doors or let us know in any way what they stand for.

I had a hard time even finding out who’s standing in my area and I have no idea who these people are after I found the stupid PDF document buried on the council web site.

So why should I vote for just names? In local elections I don’t just vote on party. I vote based on what the individual can do for me and the community locally. In the case of a general election, the same but also in how they’ll represent me in parliament (representative parliamentary democracy, not this X Factor style referendum bollox).

Lots of people find STV confusing, including older people who have spent a lifetime putting one cross against one candidates

I had forgotten about this. Will pop down after work to vote for the local tory.

There’s a valid question over whether someone who can’t handle such an extremely simple concept (even with assistance – the polling station volunteers will explain it) being allowed to participate in decisions that affect the lives of others.

Quotas, surplus votes, transfer values,second preference, redistribution..

Its not really that simple

Turnout in our last county council election was 17.1%.

I wouldn’t expect it to be much higher today because no one knew it was happening, none of the candidates had publicized their views and I only recognize one of them (tory) because he’s usually propping up the bar banging on about migrants, cyclists and roads tax.

There was a dozen others on the list most seemed to be sponsored by their family and I haven’t got a clue if they’re even sane never mind worthy of office.

#notdemocracy

edit: basically what deadkennedy said.

I’ve just been on Google, trying to fid out any info on existing or standing for my area Hexham. Absolutely nothing of substance…
I will vote, but blind.

Lots of people find STV confusing

Yes. Stupid people. A large % of the population is stupid.

I do feel sorry for our local Labour councillor, a decent bloke who’s going to get run over by the SNP steamroller.

It’s funny that people complain it’s a proxy vote for the general election or independence – here in Glasgow the SNP have been very good about talking about local issues, whereas the Tories’ entire campaign has been “We said No and we meant it” – no mention of local policies at all.

I’ll admit to not understanding STV. I don’t entirely understand D’Hondt either. With four different voting systems in use in Scotland, you have to be a real election geek to care enough to work it out.

STV is complicated to count etc, but for the voter it is basically: “Rank the candidates in your order of preference”

I think after being persuaded that something as weird as FPTP makes sense and is fair and representative, it’s easy to understand how people could find something as simple (*) as STV confusing.

(*simple at the front end, it’s not important how complicated it is behind the scenes, if it was, nobody’s ever drive a car)

bencooper – Member

It’s funny that people complain it’s a proxy vote for the general election or independence – here in Glasgow the SNP have been very good about talking about local issues, whereas the Tories’ entire campaign has been “We said No and we meant it” – no mention of local policies at all.

Aye, same here. My dad’s a No voter but even he ripped the arse out of his local tory- she turned up at his door, talked about independence, answered every question with independence, then accused the SNP of being obsessed with independence. And when he said he thought that was daft, she assumed he was an SNP/Yes voter. And all for a council election, last I looked nobody’s trying to make the Pentland Hills independent.

(meanwhile I am an SNP/Yes voter but I might well vote Labour. it’s not a proxy for government and one of our candidates is actually really good- he deserved to make it as an MP but, well, that was 2015 for you)

Mayor election here in Cambridgeshire was busy enough at the polling station this morning, not all old people either.
Lib Dems were the only one to knock on the door and judging by all the Lib Dems signs in people front gardens and windows they must have knocked on a few. A few Conservative signs in town but the the Fens around us is 100% Conservative.

I think after being persuaded that something as weird as FPTP makes sense and is fair and representative, it’s easy to understand how people could find something as simple (*) as STV confusing.

(*simple at the front end, it’s not important how complicated it is behind the scenes, if it was, nobody’s ever drive a car)

Aye, exactly – voting systems should be simple for voters to use. FPTP isn’t – which is why there’s all this stuff about tactical voting, spreadsheets to work out who to vote for to keep the Tories out, etc. You should just be able to vote for who you want, with the expectation that the average of what most people want will happen.

How that’s actually calculated in the background is a job for algorithms and geeks, and shouldn’t matter to the voter unless they’re really interested.

No local elections here today (we’re all out, every four years) but if you all move to the Haughton and Springfield ward in Darlington in the next couple of years, you can vote for me in 2019. If you lived here two years ago, you could have voted for me then as well, like 23% of the residents did.

Onzadog – Member
One of the three options for us seems to be campaigning purely on the strength of the fact that he’s worked out how to use the fixmystreet website

Similar here; one candidate trumpets at every opportunity that he set up a Facebook group to report potholes, instead of promoting the existing, very effective, council run website. Numpty.

Had a choice of a racist, a 12 year old or the Lib Dems

(I know the punchline should be the 12 year old but I went for the libs)

Don’t really see how it’s so confusing? You literally just rank the candidates you like, in order.

Not really – you’re describing AV. The SV system for the mayoral elections only has 1st and 2nd choices, which means that unlike AV, a candidate can be elected with support of less than 50%. There’s also a good chance that your vote is wasted if you don’t correctly predict who makes the run-off.

Ha, we had a choice of a fascist, racist, liar and green embryo, the Mrs voted Fascist as usual and I cancelled her out voting embryo wasting my vote as usual, I do wish the Greens would get their act together.

ransos – Member

Not really – you’re describing AV. The SV system for the mayoral elections only has 1st and 2nd choices,

No, I’m describing the STV system we’re voting with today, not mayoral elections.

Lots of people find STV confusing
Yes. Stupid people. A large % of the population is stupid.

Well, I certainly feel pretty stupid, rushed to the polling station after work, running late. And bashed an x in the box, didn’t read the ballot sheet, and completely forgot about the STV on these elections.
makes me wonder just how many others have done this?? as it wasn’t mentioned by the people giving out the sheets and ticking off names.

Here in rural Oxfordshire it could be seen as a pretty pointless excercise, however I made the effort if only to give two fingers to the incoming, self-serving Tory that will no doubt replace the previous self serving Tory, the truly odious Melinda Tilley for those of you who are local.