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

[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.