Never knowingly represented

[altariel]

I was glad that I bothered to pull out our polling cards. And even gladder that I bothered to read them. Because otherwise I wouldn't have known there was a [deleted] BOUNDARY CHANGE!!!



Which meant a different polling station. Which meant that instead of our customary three-minute jaunt round the corner, we had a quarter of an hour slog halfway across north [deleted] [deleted] benighted city in eastern England!

My god, though, my grandparents came over here and slogged to build railways and what-have-you so that I could be free to cast my vote in such as way as to have them spinning in their graves. No pesky walk was going to stop me exercising my democratic right!

I made the effort to check turnout and results at the last election in my new ward. And let's just say that while the candidate of my party of choice did not come in third, the combined number of votes cast for second and third placed candidates did not even catch up with those cast for the winning candidate...

*grinds teeth*

When we left the house, we were walking behind a young couple clutching their polling cards, clearly bewildered at this strange walk they were being forced to make. About halfway to the polling station they looked like they were giving up and going home. By gum, they don't make them tough any more. (They did get there in the end, just as we were leaving. Good for them.)

Hellfire, though, 19.7% turnout at the last local election in this ward. By Christ I've done my bit for democracy tonight! Never was a vote cast so vainly and with as much vengeance of heart!

Comments

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

By Christ I've done my bit for democracy tonight! Never was a vote cast so vainly and with as much vengeance of heart!

Metaquote! May I?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Help yourself!

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Metaquoted! (http://www.livejournal.com/community/metaquotes/1199294.html)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Cool! :-D

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Well done for making the trip! I was appalled by last year's turnout, too. We preach democracy to Iraq? Why not put some value on it in our own backyard, hmm?

For some reason, I didn't get a voting card. I'm living fairly close to where I was last year, so I made my way to where I vaguely remembered the polling station to be and hoped that they would know who I was. Luckily, they did. They didn't even ask for proof of ID, which surprised me - I'd taken my passport along just in case.

I think my party of choice has even less chance of getting in. But at least a vote of conscience helps to keep that particular lobby alive.

[kerravonsen]

Which is why I think the Australian system is better: a fine if one doesn't vote. Voting isn't a right, it's a duty!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ooh no, that just doesn't feel right!

[hafren.livejournal.com]

It'd be OK with me. One can always spoil the paper but I do think it's a duty; that old guy in South Africa voting for the first time in his life said "I have become a human being", and it does drive me mad when people over here can't be bothered.

Mind you, I do live literally opposite the polling station, close enough to go over in my slippers this morning while the kettle boiled...:)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I feel it's a duty too, but I wouldn't like to be forced by law to do it. I could be persuaded of changing the law to make voting mandatory as a pragmatic necessity if turnout continues to fall, however.

Mind you, I do live literally opposite the polling station, close enough to go over in my slippers this morning while the kettle boiled...:)

*envious*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think as yet I've only missed casting one vote, in a local/EU election. I was a bit irritated with myself that I hadn't spotted before that there'd been a boundary change - but not as irritated as I would have been if I'd gone to the other polling station...

Hm, wonder why you didn't get a polling card? Well, at least you were on the register and they could check that.

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Ah, I knew I was on the register because I got a personal letter from Michael Howard at my current address :)

Though I did worry about being arrested for claiming two votes, since my mum keeps entering me on the register for our home town, forgetting that I don't live there anymore.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

A student interviewed on the election programme earlier seemed to be under the impression she could vote both in her home town, and in the town where she was studying - but surely that can't be right?!?

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

It is right. Elections for different local authorities are different elections, so there's no reason you can't vote in more than one if you're legitimately on the elctoral register in more than one district.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Something about that doesn't seem right to me intuitively. Probably something to do with the duplication of influence.

How are the blisters?

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

How are the blisters?

Still pretty tender. Two crucial observable differences between ourselves and Labour at today's count:

1) we were all limping, they weren't

2) we won decisively, increasing our majority by two and increasing our vote over the whole city; they lost badly.

These two phenomena are corellated.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! And may your feet heal soon.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

we won decisively, increasing our majority by two and increasing our vote over the whole city

Sorry this is rather delayed, but congratulations!

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[fileg.livejournal.com]

Yay you!


"Never was a vote cast so vainly and with as much vengeance of heart!"

I voted for McGovern in 1972....

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I've only been voting since 1992, but I don't think I've yet voted for a candidate that has won.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

The last several elections, they haven't even bothered fielding a candidate I would stoop to voting for, so I get the choice of (a) not bothering to vote; (b) grinding my teeth and voting for candidate A from a party I loathe and detest out of my belief in parliamentary democracy; (c) grinding my teeth and voting for candidate B from another party I loathe and detest out of my belief in parliamentary democracy; or (d) turning out specially just to exercise my democratic right to spoil my ballot paper. I went for (d) this time, though I did actually get a postal vote, which meant I only had to walk to the post box to cast my null vote.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think B and C are exactly what parliamentary democracy are all about.

[mrkinch.livejournal.com]

At some point I think there was a guy named Anderson...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

?

[mrkinch.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

I've gone to permanent absentee ballot so that I will keep voting despite the rarity of a winner.*sighs*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I do feel like the Suffragette movement wasn't entirely wasted ;-)

I do like turning out to vote - I like the ritual of casting my vote. Could have done with a slightly shorter walk this evening, though, LOL!

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

We east Midlanders didn't even have a polling station. we had to trust our voting papers to the not-so-Royal Mail, had to sign the thing and have it witnessed too.

So much for a secret ballot - HA!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Hm, I haven't liked the sound of these postal ballots at all.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

They were dreadful. The small print made me squint and the mysterious set of not-quite-big-enough envelopes made me fumble, so what those with partial sight and/or arthritis made of it I don't know.

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

You do indeed rock! Not having your candidate win does not diminish the importance of citizens taking part in the election of their government. By definition, not everyone's choice wins, but in voting, we confirm the peaceful transfer of power in accordance with the will of the voting majority.

And I say this through gritted teeth, being among the technical majority of voting Americans who did not vote for Bush and as a citizen of a country where fewer than half the eligible voters vote, so a "landslide" victory means less than half the eligible citizens voted for the winner. I still believe in the value of voting and of elections, however, and obviously a lot of other folks elsewhere in the world are willing to die for the right to cast the vote that too many here and elsewhere in the Western democracies cast aside. So I say: cheers to you for doing your bit!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It was a close run thing - Mr A. had had a rotten afternoon and was really shattered anyway. However, we grimly enjoyed the sense of doing something utterly pointless, and it was quite a nice evening, plus we got to have something to complain about the whole time we were walking over to the polling station.

If I don't vote, then I don't feel I'm justified spending the time between now and the next election ranting at politicians on the telly.

This was local council elections and elections for the European parliament rather than a general election, but I take a particular pride in voting in those, because hardly any other bugger bothers, with the exception, it seems, of a large proportion of my friends' list! *g*

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

we grimly enjoyed the sense of doing something utterly pointless,

Last night, I felt this kind of pleasure too for a brief time. About half an hour before the polling stations closed I realised I hadn't cast my pointless vote for the European Parliament yet, so I hurried there and voted for the guy who blew up the European Commision, five years ago. He'd founded his own party, "Transparent Europe" and I felt like supporting Don Quixote.

As it turned out, I wasn't he only one. The party actually managed to claim two seats in the EP. So now he's going to be corrupted, too, I guess...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

We were voting in the European election here too, of course. Hasn't there been some fuss about the early release of the results by the Dutch government?

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

Not so much here. I seem to remember the results were identical with the exit polls, and I guess they didn't think it was such a big deal anyway.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It got some coverage over here.

[(Anonymous)]

Never was a vote cast so vainly and with as much vengeance of heart!

Hold that thought and check back with Greens, Independents, and Democrats-in-favor-of-a-Democrat-other-than-Kerry in America come November, 2004...

At least your vote wasn't an e-ballot made by people who won't release source code or think of adding a paper trail backup to their systems until forced to consider the idea.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

E-voting just seems a recipe for disaster. Paper-pencil-count. It's the only way to do it.

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Never was a vote cast so vainly and with as much vengeance of heart!

I admire your verve, and your participation. I do vote on the local level, and it can be very disheartening to see around 4:30 on a voting day that I'm the only one on the page who has done so. On the other hand, Mr. Thev brought home a political funny about the Republican Party and I had to ask him who most of the people were. I have become as uninvolved in our national political system as one can be, I think. It just doesn't seem relevant.

p.s. congrats on the new writing; I'll need to read it!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

In the event, it turned out it was a vote almost worth casting - the candidate from my party of choice wasn't elected, but came in fourth (the first three get elected). But the majority was reduced from 259 to 50. Plus turnout increased by about 8%. That all made me feel better.

[(Anonymous)]

There is no such thing as a wasted vote. Even if your person loses, you have expressed your opinion. More than that, you are voting for democracy. I never miss a vote, and the people who run the polls know me and my daughter, who has been coming in with me to vote since she was being carried in a basket. Since she was 6, I have allowed her to fill in the ballot, (My candidates) so she will be ready when she is of age. It is odd. As someone else said, everyone I know votes most every time. I often wonder who it is that cannot be bothered. I suspect it is the same group that complains the loudest that the country is being poorly run.

It is frustrating when they make to harder to vote. When I first moved into our house, the polling station was a block away. Now it is at the local hockey arena, which is two miles away.

On e-ballots. Here, we use computer tallied paper ballots, which works quite nicely. The ballots are similar to computer scored tests in school. They give you the special black felt tip pen to use. Then you put the ballot into a machine that tallies the votes on the spot. (It also rejects invalid balots, so they can be fixed.) When the polls close, a telephone - modem - internet system collects the votes and the results are available within 30 minutes of poll closing. There is also a paper trail if any of the machines are suspect. (People count the votes on the ballots by hand) In the last US election, ther was a 2% error & bad ballot rate. We had something like 5 bad/invalid ballots out of 100,000 in Dane County. This is not new technology. We have had this system for at least 6 or 8 years.

Mike K

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That is just great, taking your daughter with you.


When I first moved into our house, the polling station was a block away. Now it is at the local hockey arena, which is two miles away.

This non-driver says, Ouch! That would make it a real slog for me to vote.