Last week my daughter, Angie, stood for election in the local elections. Unfortunately she wasn't elected but put up a very creditable performance.
The point is I got to see politics from the other side as it were, and in general a very unsavoury experience it was too.
Firstly I had to be one of those people who take your number as you go into the polling station. It is not compulsary to give your number but it does give an indication of the percentage of the area who are turning out to vote. I was so surprised at the people who did turn out. I only did a couple of 2 hour shifts but I think during my time there was one lad in his middle twenties and a woman with a baby in her mid thirties. The rest were senior citizens.
I quizzed the people from the two other parties who were with me and they said that it was quite usual. generally when people came of age it was such a novel experience to vote that they voted but then they didn't tend to vote until they were getting on in years.
The general opinion was that voting locally ought to be compulsary as it mattered what was happening in your area.
Some of the voters were downright rude and others were real sweeties. One woman came out muttering that it was a shambles and she had no idea who she had voted for. Does make you wonder why she bothered to turn out.
The next day I was a watcher(I don't know the official term). This meant sitting in front of the official vote counters just to make sure that they didn't make a mistake. It was interesting to see the votes being opened as you could see the way that the trend was going. And weren't the seasoned candidates ruthless too. They were like hawks watching over our shoulders.
Firstly the papers are counted to make sure that they tally with the official record of how many papers were put in the ballot box.
Then they are spread amongst the counters who sort them into piles. As an observer you are not allowed to touch the ballot papers but if you see a mistake you have to ask the counter to check the paper and put it on the correct pile. The piles are then checked by someone else.
They are then counted and put into clips holding 25 votes.
There were 6 candidates in Angies ward and the man who had been elected for the last several years was a clear winner. The second seat was a close call between Angies running mate and the winners running mate. They demanded recount after recount and finally the Returning Officer said there would only be one more recount and that would be final. After the fifth recount Angies running mate was declared the winner by three votes.
3 comments:
My goodness, what a drama! Sorry Angie did not get elected.
I didnt realise that the number takers were just counting percentage of voters. I always assumed that it was because the different parties wanted to know how many people had voted for them. I think so many people now use postal voting dont they :).
I was sorry to hear that Angie didnt win, perhaps next time :)
I think they do an exit poll sometimes Marion - then people say how they have voted. You are not allowed to ask before they go into the polling station.
They don't know how many have voted for them until the official counting - but by the turnout I think they can get an idea of how things are going.
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